Astrid's Problem
by MysteryWriter2187
Summary: What began as a one-time experiment slowly grows into a major problem that spreads across the entire Archipelago. As she prepares to put a stop to her suffering, Astrid recaps the five-and-a-half year chain of events that she set in motion the day she first tried dragon nip. Set in my "He's Mine" universe. Contains allusions to drug-use/dealing and attempted suicide. Please R&R.
1. Astrid's Framing Device

**AN: Well, this first chapter is up somewhat earlier than I had expected, even with me having to juggle school and family commitments with it, so hopefully it's still worth the wait/effort. I've not really seen any HTTYD stories with this sort of premise (if there is, feel free to inform me of it) so I thought I'd try something a little different.**

 **I'm aiming for this to be a comedy-drama, but since I've never actually had to deal with or experience the themes this story is going to portray I'll just apologise in advance if the way I deal with/portray these themes comes off as insensitive to real people with these problems.**

 **Dialogue written in _Bold Italics_ is narration and/or fourth wall breaking from Astrid's perspective.**

 **Also, just for a heads up, though I'm adding Chapter 2 later today, since the chapters will be somewhat longer and more detailed than my usual standard, the following updates for this story will be weekly (Wednesdays, specifically) rather than daily. Anyway, on with the story...**

* * *

 **CHAPTER ONE  
** **Astrid's Framing Device**

* * *

 _"Alright, girl... let's just settle down here..."_ Astrid muttered out as Stormfly flew down to the island that was about a hundred feet below where they were flying. It was a fairly small island in terms of geography, though it more than made up for it's lack of width with the height of it's towering, steep cliff edges.

 _"Easy, girl... easy..."_ Astrid spoke softly as Stormfly lowered downwards towards the island. She was trying to sound happy and had a smile forced onto her face, but she was hurting on the inside. The last thing she wanted to do was let Stormfly figure out that something was wrong, but as it ate away at her more and more it made it harder and harder for her not to break down into tears on her dragon there and then.

Even with the pain she felt, Astrid hated to bring Stormfly into this. Her beloved companion didn't deserve to be a witness to what Astrid was about to do, but as they got closer and closer to the island Astrid slowly began to accept that neither she or her dragon had a choice in this matter.

 _"Good girl, Stormfly... good girl..."_ Astrid groaned to herself as Stormfly landed on the lower, South side of the island and she slowly got off of her dragon's back. She remained silent as she strolled up towards the higher end of the island with Stormfly following just behind her.

* * *

 _ **"My name is Astrid Hofferson... and I have a problem..."**_

* * *

They'd been flying for a few hours and had travelled quite a notable distance from Berk, so Stormfly was clearly experiencing some fatigue from the trip. Astrid only had to wait about five or ten minutes before her dragon was sitting curled up at the bottom of the Eastern hill, inches away from falling asleep.

She smiled, a little more genuinely this time, as she caressed her dragon's forehead, softly saying _"ssh... ssh..."_ as Stormfly lowered her head and closed her eyes, with some audible snoring following a few seconds later. Astrid exhaled in relief. Provided her dragon stayed asleep while she did what she was planning, it was probably going to be a lot easier to pull off than Astrid had initially thought.

 _"Goodnight, Stormfly..."_

* * *

 _ **"Admittedly, this problem's been a pretty long time in the making, and with the benefit of hindsight I'd have probably done something about it before it got too bad..."**_

* * *

Astrid took a deep breath as she reached the top of the Eastern hill, the steepest and highest part of the entire island. She sat on the rock at the edge of the cliff, looking out calmly at the striking red sunset that bled it's colours out onto the ocean.

 _"Okay... come on, Astrid, come on... you can do this..."_ she muttered to herself, a hint of both worry and hesitation in her voice as she continued frantically wringing her hands together. _"You can do this... you've gotta do this... ugh... you can't really do much else now, can you...?"_

She was _the_ Fearless Astrid Hofferson. She was a Viking. A Berkian. A dragon rider. She'd gone through a lot over the last few years, and she was _**not**_ going to let this scare her. It had to be done, and when she had to do something, she did it.

* * *

 _ **"But, obviously, I didn't, so it got worse, I got worse and now I've pretty much ruined my entire reputation with my tribe and my betrothed..."**_

* * *

 _"Hoo... here goes..."_ she groaned breathlessly as she stood up and walked closer to the edge, allowing her to see the roaring sea crash and smash against the side of the rocks about fifty feet below her. She stood there contemplating for another minute or so, before she finally tensed her eyes shut.

* * *

 _ **"But still... things could always be worse, right?"**_

* * *

And then she _jumped_.

* * *

 _ **"Oh wait... no, I just threw myself off a cliff... so... I guess not..."**_

* * *

Time seemed to slow around her as she plummeted down with her front facing the sky, but Astrid felt perfectly, and surprisingly, _relaxed_. She was going to die. And not in battle, either, but by suicide. She should have been ashamed, _terrified_ even, but she wasn't. She heard what sounded like a voice and a cry in the distance, saying _"Astrid... Astrid..."_

But she paid no attention. Astrid simply closed her eyes and shut out the noises around her, letting the wind blowing up from under her guide her body closer down towards the rock. As she felt herself falling unconscious, she was just able to notice the growing sound of flapping wings and the silhouette of a hand reaching towards her.

This must have been a Valkyrie, having flown down to lead her through Odin's battlefield to Valhalla, though she was surprised that committing suicide still allowed that. With nowhere else to turn, Astrid didn't react in the slightest, letting the familiar-feeling hand take hers.

* * *

 ** _"Well... I guess before I literally hit rock bottom I might as well recap how I got to this point... so why don't we wind back the clock before mine comes to a permanent stop..."_**


	2. Astrid's First Time

**CHAPTER TWO  
Astrid's First Time**

* * *

 **5 1/2 Years Earlier...**

 _"Oh, for Gods' sake... the axe, Stormfly... the axe!"_ Astrid said in a frustrated tone, getting more and more stressed out as her dragon kept bringing over the same short, dirty stick that she had found earlier that day.

Astrid picked up the stick and threw it away, pointing to where she had positioned her axe a hundred yards away, perfectly visible for Stormfly to see. _"I want you to bring me my axe... please..."_

Hiccup was teaching them all how to have their dragons bring things to them on order, and everyone else seemed to be doing well. It only took a few attempts for Hookfang to bring Snotlout every single one of his past Thawfest medals, and Meatlug was able to bring Fishlegs his mother's favourite helmet in no time at all. Even Barf wasn't having any trouble whatsoever with giving Ruffnut a mace to clobber her brother with.

 _"What is going on here? How the Hel is Ruffnut of all people doing better than me?"_ Astrid grunted to herself, before looking at her dragon and saying in a whiny tone _"come on girl, you're embarrassing me here..."_

Stormfly took off again, leaving Astrid to watch the other riders succeeding with ease. She _prayed_ that Hiccup wouldn't be around to see her messing this up so badly. Astrid huffed and puffed at the thought of this, before she heard the sound of Stormfly landing right behind her, forcing a smile back onto her face as she turned around to see what her dragon had brought for her.

 _"Ugh... NO!"_ she finally snapped, yelling out in fury as she threw away the stick that her nadder had brought to her for the dozenth time. _"That is not what I wanted you to do! Why are you so bad at taking orders, you stupid dr... AAAAHHH! Hiccup!"_

* * *

 ** _"This... is Berk, like it needs any introduction. What else could I possibly say about it that Hiccup hasn't already? It's cold, it's distant, it's dark and it's miserable. But it's home. It always has been, and it always will be."_**

* * *

 _"Bad dragon! Whoa! Very bad dragon! Agh!"_ Astrid was running frantically for cover as Stormfly started snapping at her, before she darted screaming behind a barrier as the dragon let out a hot belting of fire in her direction. _"HICCUUUUUUUUUUUP!"_

"WHOA! Easy, girl! Easy!" she heard the familiar nasally voice cry out as the equally familiar scrawny-built, one legged boy with the tussled brown hair arrived to pacify the dragon before she could burn a hole straight through Astrid's hiding place.

* * *

 ** _"About three weeks'd passed since Hiccup and Toothless killed the Red Death... I'd been having some, uh... difficulties, let's say, with taming Stormfly..."_**

* * *

Astrid peeked her head up from her cindered hiding place, becoming slightly calmer as she watched Hiccup scratching under Stormfly's neck. This caused the previously aggressive dragon to collapse with a surprising amount of force onto the ground, as Hiccup quietly said "there... easy... good girl... there we go..."

She raised an eyebrow as she watched. It occurred to her that Hiccup had used this same technique to pacify the nadder during one of their dragon killing classes. It was actually him doing this that prevented Astrid from cutting the dragon's head straight off.

"Great... so... I guess that's taken care of..." he said with an aura of smug pride mixed into his usually shy and sarcastic demeanour. Astrid could tell that she was smirking, only a bit, but smirking nonetheless. She began fidgeting with her hands, wringing them together and taking a split second to shift her bangs out of her eyes as she thought about what to say.

 _"Uh... hey..."_ was the only thing that managed to come out of her mouth as she awkwardly scooted over next to Hiccup. They both stood silently and awkwardly for about a minute, both of them too nervous to say anything, before Astrid finally cleared her throat and added _"so, uh... thanks, Hiccup..."_

"Oh sure, Astrid... anything for you..." Hiccup answered back, before going wide-eyed and putting his palm to his face as he stuttered out "oh! Um... uh... man, that came out wrong... ugh... sorry, that was just... stupid..."

* * *

 _ **"Dammit! Why was he always so adorable all of a sudden?! I was the Fearless Astrid Hofferson! The last thing I had time or patience for was obsessively crushing on some weedy little twig! Some weedy little twig who trained a Night Fury and ended a war, but still..."**_

* * *

 _"Hm... well..."_ Astrid grinned as she stroked the relaxed dragon's face, prompting Stormfly to grumble happily in response. _"Pretty hot temper she's got, huh..."_

"See? What'd I tell you? You two are perfect for e... **OW!** " Hiccup grunted with a laugh as she punched his shoulder to shut him up, though they were both laughing as she did. A light punch on the shoulder had basically become their tradition, and it was a much lighter punishment than what Astrid tended to use on everyone else.

 _"That's enough trash-talking from you, peg-leg!"_ she snapped in a playful tone, grinning as she added _"I think that I've had a stressful enough morning, thanks..."_

Hiccup grinned back, before reaching his hand into his pocket and pulling out something that caught Astrid's eye. He bent down onto one knee and opened his hand to reveal a small clump of bright green grass cuttings.

She was simply curious at first, but became more worried as she noticed Hiccup putting it close to Stormfly's face, grabbing his arm to stop him as she said _"hey, what is that you're giving to my dragon?!"_

"Oh, uh... right... yeah..." Hiccup stuttered again, obviously having just remembered that this _wasn't_ Toothless he was tending to. "It's just a little dragon nip..."

* * *

 ** _"Ah yes... how could I forget the moment this whole slippery slope started...?"_**

* * *

 _"Dragon nip?"_ Astrid could feel her eyebrow rising again as Hiccup stood back up to show it to her. It just looked like plain old grass, though it felt less coarse and was a slightly brighter green than the usual kind around Berk, and just by holding it she could sense a light but distinct garlic fragrance.

"Toothless loves it... they all do, actually..." Hiccup explained as he took it back and bent down to Stormfly's level again.

He rubbed it gently against the sleeping dragon's nose, causing her to jolt a bit at the new smell before she went back to being relaxed a moment later. Proud of his work, Hiccup looked back to Astrid, who was still slightly wide-eyed at what she had just witnessed.

 _"Whoa... that's, uh... that's some strong stuff..."_ she managed to say.

Hiccup nodded at this remark, looking at the bunch that he was still holding as he said "uh... yeah, I uh... I guess so... well, um... from the looks of things, she'll be flat out for about an hour or so..."

 _"Ugh... thank the gods..."_ Astrid groaned with a relieved laugh. _"So, uh... any idea where I could get her some more of that stuff?"_

"Yeah, there's a whole field of it... I think it's uh... ooh, wait a sec..." Hiccup dug his hand back into his jacket and fished out one of his many rusty brown notebooks. He opened it on the page bang in the middle of the book where there was a double-page-spread picture of a bird's-eye-map of Berk. He passed it to Astrid, who held it as Hiccup used a pencil to circle a section of the map for her to see.

"It's about a ten minute flight from that cove where Toothless used to live... y'know, where you beat me up?"

 _"Pft... uh huh... sure thing..."_

* * *

 ** _"So... Hiccup may hate me for what this led to, but I guess, since he told me about it, he's not entirely blameless either..."_**

* * *

It was mid-afternoon when Stormfly flew over the island, Astrid sitting on her dragon's back while she looked at the map in the notebook Hiccup had given her.

 _"Alright, girl... this is the spot!"_ Astrid shouted, prompting the dragon to lower down onto the ground about a hundred yards away from the vast, bright green field. She dismounted her dragon and walked ahead towards the field of dragon nip, still in awe at the sheer vastness of the field. _"Wow..."_

The small cuttings Hiccup had shown her earlier were quite misleading, as the uncut blades were much longer and taller, nearly reaching her forehead. But just by standing a few feet from them Astrid could already sense the now much stronger garlic smell. To her surprise, it was actually quite _pleasant_.

 _"Stormfly! Over here, Stormfly!"_ Astrid called to get her nadder's attention, prompting the dragon to come bounding across the ground to where her rider was. She reached into the leather satchel she was wearing and pulled out a small knife, using it to cut off a few dozen pieces of the dragon nip and holding it up to Stormfly's nose.

 _"Yeah... what'd you think of that, huh?"_ she asked affectionately as the dragon already began sniffing and sneezing in reaction to the grass. Astrid smiled, before opening her satchel wide. She spent about five minutes filling the satchel with as much dragon nip as she could shove into it, before grunting as she picked up the much heavier bag and climbed onto Stormfly's back. _"Alright, girl... let's go home..."_

* * *

 _ **"When we got back, I was putting Stormfly away in her stable, and I was about to give her some of the dragon nip we'd just picked, when a completely random thought popped into my head..."**_

* * *

 _"I wonder what it tastes like..."_ Astrid suddenly said to herself as she sat next to the pen where Stormfly was resting, holding a clump of the dragon nip in her hands. After about five minutes of pondering about this, she glanced to her left and then to her right to make sure no one was watching, before taking a deep breath and putting the dragon nip closer to her open mouth...

"Astrid? Are you here, dear?" a voice suddenly called from inside the Hofferson house next to the pen, prompting Astrid to go wide-eyed as she darted into the pen with Stormfly and shut the door behind her.

 _"Oh crap... Mom..."_ she whispered worryingly to herself as her mother kept calling for her, before looking down at the dragon nip she was still holding. _"Um... ugh, come on, think, Astrid! Think!"_

She looked through the pen door to glance around the village, needing somewhere to avoid parents or possibly concerned friends. _"Alright... where to... where to..."_

The Great Hall?

 _"No way..."_

The Dragon Training Ring?

 _"Nope..."_

Gobber's conveniently empty stall?

 _"Bingo!"_ Astrid ran over to the stall, sliding through the window and shutting it behind her. Private. Somewhat dark. And hidden.

This was the _perfect_ place for her dragon nip taste-test.

* * *

 ** _"Little did I realise that I was just about to make quite possibly the biggest mistake of my entire life..."_**


	3. Astrid's Three Stages

**CHAPTER THREE  
** **Astrid's Three Stages**

* * *

Once she knew she was completely alone, having looked through and closed all the windows and doors in the forge so no one outside could see in, Astrid sat herself down on a chair in the middle of Hiccup's workplace.

She could tell right away it was Hiccup's, since it was full of his messy drawings and trinkets, which now included updated designs for Toothless' tail that Gobber had used to rebuild it, and even some new models and designs for an updated prosthetic for Hiccup.

It was clear that, in the weeks that had passed since he shot down Toothless, Hiccup had clearly expanded his little "office" from the small, curtained area that Astrid had found the first time she visited this place.

* * *

 **Two Months Earlier...**

 _"Hey!" Astrid said as she stood in the doorway of the stall, taking Gobber and his scrawny apprentice out of their conversation. She had her axe slung on her shoulder, sighing as she reluctantly asked "ca_ _n I get this sharpened?"_

 _"Astrid! I, uh... hi, Astrid... uh, hello there, welcome... uh, what can I d..." Hiccup stopped his nervous chattering when Astrid threw her axe so that it stuck right into the barrel that was in front of him, causing his awkward grin to drop straight back down to a worrying frown._

 _Gobber grinned at the boy, before looking at Astrid and saying "well, my um... manly... apprentice here will service all of your needs... so... I'll leave y'both to it..."_

 _When Gobber left, Astrid groaned audibly, suggesting that she'd rather be anywhere else but there, as she passed the axe to Hiccup, who was visibly stumbling as the weight of it dragged both his arms down._

 _"Okay..." he said. "Razor sharp battle axe... coming right up..."_

 _"Uh, careful! That's my mother's..." Astrid said with a slight hint of genuine concern coming from her usually deadpan, emotionless voice. As she looked a the other weapons that were hung up on the wall, Hiccup got the sharpener working and put one of the axe blades to it._

 _He wasn't concentrating on the axe, as he saw Astrid noticing the closed curtain and pulling it open. "Hey, uh... no! You're not actually supposed to..."_

 _ **DINK!** he looked wide-eyed at the large gash that he had made in the axe blade, quickly hiding it under the table as Astrid looked into the hidden room. "What is... all this?"_

 _"Oh, uh... nothing, it's just... just some stuff I'm working on..." Hiccup said quickly, running to the pile of spare axe blades and taking an identical one to Astrid's when she wasn't looking. "Some, uh... confidential... upper level development, that sort of thing..."_

 _"The Mutilator?" Astrid read the name of one of the designs out loud, not noticing Hiccup placing the new axe blade into a vice as he took her axe handle and began to screw it in._

 _"Yes..." he said, slightly more confident as he discreetly fixed what he had broken. "Basically, it uses twin-bladed power levers to launch criss-crossing blades in four different directions..."_

 _"And... how do you hold it?"_

 _"Well, you don't... you shoot it..." Hiccup sounded slightly annoyed with her suggestion as he finally finished putting the axe together._

 _"Oh, well, uh..." Astrid sounded slightly disappointed as she put the design back on the table, before adding "well, I'm more of an old fashioned, take it down with an axe and then LOP it's head off kind of girl... it's kind of the Viking way, I guess..."_

 _"Yay... go, Vikings..." Hiccup groaned without any emotion or enthusiasm whatsoever. He held up the completed axe, passing it to Astrid and saying "well... here ya go..."_

 _He stood nervously with his hands behind his back as Astrid inspected the axe, throwing it from hand-to-hand a few times to test the weight. "This feels... different..."_

 _"Well, yeah..." Hiccup stuttered out. "I uh... I just... I re-balanced it... tightened it up... finessed it... we're a full-service outfit here..."_

 _"Hm... well, uh... thanks..." Astrid wiped her hair out of her eyes before taking the axe and leaving._

* * *

Astrid chuckled at the thought of this memory, before remembering the whole reason she was even in the forge right now. She was still holding the clump of dragon nip in her hands.

 _"Hoo... alright... here goes..."_ she said, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before shoving the entire clump into her mouth. It felt soft and the garlic-like smell was the only taste it had, but the points of the grass were surprisingly sharp and scraped lightly against her tongue and the roof and corners of her mouth. She had to start chewing it in order to cut the blades into smaller pieces that made them much easier for her to swallow.

 _"Ah-heh-hem!"_ she cleared her throat once she'd finally finished swallowing all of it, sitting still for a few minutes to try and figure out how it tasted, or if she liked how it tasted. She sat like this for about half a minute, sighing as she said _"well... I guess that was a waste of tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooWOW-WEE!"_

* * *

 _ **"So... I think it's time I talk you through what I like to call the three stages of humans eating dragon nip... this is Stage 1... the bliss..."**_

* * *

 ** _"Whoa..."_** Astrid had stood up from the chair and had her arms outstretched as she stepped out into the main area of the forge. Everything around her began to twist, rotate and distort unnaturally, turning from dull, boring brown and black to eye-popping blue and green bio luminescent flashes of neon that caused Astrid to go wide-eyed. **_"Oh my GODS! It's so beautiful!"_**

After about five minutes, the bright, neon-like colours that swirled around her slowly died down back to their original muted, brown and black colours, though Astrid still felt utterly euphoric as she spun around laughing to herself. _**"I LOVE THIS STUUUUUUUUUUUUFF! HA HA HA HA HAAA!"**_

As she did this, Astrid wasn't able to hear the sound of footsteps that interchanged with a small metal spring bouncing off the ground, before she stopped spinning as the familiar nasally voice behind her finally said "uh... hey, Astrid..."

* * *

 _ **"Stage 2 is probably the most inconvenient side effect to dragon nip with humans... see, it's kind of like alcohol... blurs your brain, and makes you do and say things that you don't wanna do... though it also makes you do and say things that you do wanna do... I call this stage the word vomit."**_

* * *

 _"Hiccup! H-WHOA!"_ Astrid tumbled back dizzily into a shelf, causing several of Hiccup's inventions and trinkets to come crashing down on the floor with her. **_CLATTER! BANG! CRASH!_**

"ASTRID!" Hiccup went wide-eyed as he ran to help her, only for Astrid to shoot up again, still dizzy but trying her best to stand up straight. "Astrid... are you okay?"

Astrid had an airheaded grin on her face and leaned forwards onto the table with one hand, using the other to pull her shirt down a bit to try giving herself some cleavage. _"Oh! Hey... Hiccup... didn't see you there... wow... fancy seeing you here, huh?"_

"Uh, yeah... weird, right?" Hiccup snarked, since it would have been more unusual if he _wasn't_ in Gobber's stall. He had his usual grin on his face, but it was clear that he already felt something was wrong. "Uh... Astrid?"

 _"YEP! Ha ha! That's me..."_ Astrid answered as she continued trying to puff out her chest while trying not to collapse into the wall again. Hiccup cleared his throat awkwardly as he tried to keep his eyes off her chest, stuttering out "right... so, uh... what are you, uh... what exactly are you doing here, Astrid?"

 _"Pft... I live on Berk... obviously... ha ha..."_ Astrid stumbled a bit as she tried walk closer to Hiccup and eventually ended up right in front of him with his back against the wall, playfully pressing his nose like a button as she added _"thought you'd have figured that out by now, dragon boy..."_

"Yeah... okay, but... what are you doing here? Here in Gobber's stall?"

 _"Well... I was in the neighbourhood and... and I uh... **HIC!** Ugh... and I thought I'd pay a very good looking guy a visit..."_

"Oh yeah, ha ha... and who's that?" Hiccup snarked, though his tone of voice was still nervous and awkward.

 _"Pft... YOU, SILLY!"_ Astrid accidentally shouted, struggling to hold in laughter as she clumsily shoved Hiccup back so that he landed hard on a chair.

"Astrid, what are you doi- **OOF!** " Hiccup felt the wind being knocked out of him as Astrid clumsily sat on his lap, her spiked skirt landing directly on his crotch. He was even more uncomfortable as Astrid cupped his face and pinched his nose, saying _"y'know, Hiccup... you've got a really cute face... all your freckles, and your little... cute little button nose right here... BEEP-BEEP, ha ha!"_

"Are you drunk or something?" Hiccup asked bluntly, before Astrid playfully but aggressively pressed his nose with her hand and shouted **_"ANK-ANK! WROOONG!"_**

"Astrid, can you please stop touching my n..."

 _"I was just trying some of that AMAZING dragon nip you showed me..."_

"Aw, well, that's... wait, _trying?_ " Hiccup went wide-eyed as she said this, before Astrid put her arms around his neck and answered _"yep... and it made me think about you and your status..."_

"Uh... my status? Astrid, what exactly do you mean by th..."

 _"Oh come ON, Hiccup... we're both young, attractive people. I'm a girl, you're a boy, and that's why-you know what, just forget this, I have no idea what I'm talking about, come here..."_ Astrid laughed out, before she grabbed a still wide-eyed Hiccup's shirt and dragged his lips towards hers. Hiccup tried to speak as Astrid clumsily and messily kissed him, grabbing her by the shoulders and trying to push her back.

"Uh... Ast... Astrid... hey, uh... can we, uh... not do th... Astrid... I... I don't wa... Astrid... Astrid!"

But she kept advancing, nearly causing Hiccup to fall out of the chair as she said _"UGH! Don't act like you don't want this too!"_

"HEY!" Hiccup yelled as he deflected her hand before she could reach his privates and finally managed to push her back. After a few seconds, he realised that his hands were directly on her breasts and let go of her, timidly but firmly saying "Astrid, I'm sorry, but... but I'm drawin' the line at that!"

 _"Oh, what? Like... you're rejecting me?"_ Astrid asked in a sarcastic tone, pretending to pout like a spoiled child while struggling not to laugh.

"What, no! Wait, uh... yeah, yes! I am... look Astrid, I'm sorry but, I'm not doing that! Not when you're..."

 _"Aw, what's wrong, hero? You don't think I'm... ugh..."_ Astrid briefly stopped talking as she felt her stomach and belched softly. She gulped, before swishing her hair back as she tried to look sexy despite her dizziness, saying _"you don't think I'm pretty?"_

"What? No... Astrid, I... I think you're beautiful. And smart, and funny..." Hiccup said, trailing off a bit in slight embarrassment. "But... you're under this... this dragon nip, stuff... I'm not doing this when you're acting all weird... so let's just get you to b..."

 _"PAH! I'm not weird, Hiccup... you're weird! Ha ha ha HAAA HA HA!"_ Astrid laughed in an excruciatingly high-pitched tone that caused Hiccup to tense with one eye shut as he heard it. _"I dunno WHAT you're talking about being weird, Hiccup, because I feel absolutely... uh-oh... **BLERRRRRGH!** "_

* * *

 ** _"And that's Stage 3... the actual vomit..."_**

* * *

 _ **"BLEEEEEEEECK! UGH! BLERGH! EEK! BL... Oh, my GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRAAAAAGGGGHHHH! BLERRRRGGGHHHH!"**_

"ASTRID!" Hiccup cried out as she finally finished puking violently onto the ground and fell back unconscious, nearly landing in the puddle of her own vomit before Hiccup caught her and lifted her up in a bridal carry. "Oh Gods... ugh... man, uh... alright, let's get you back to your parents..."

* * *

 ** _"Oh, Hiccup... sweet, humble, caring, selfless little Hiccup... I know for a fact that if Snotlout, Tuffnut or even Ruffnut had found me like that, they'd had taken advantage without a second thought. But not Hiccup. Never Hiccup. He didn't have it in him to be like that. And I loved him for it."_**

* * *

Astrid slowly opened her eyes, groaning as she felt her forehead and sat up to observe her surroundings. She was in her house, specifically her bedroom, and even more specifically, her bed. The world and her senses were back to normal, more or less, though a furious migraine was tearing through her forehead and it felt like her brain was being crushed between her ears.

 _"Ugh... that was **the** worst dream I have ever had..."_ she said to herself, and she meant every word of it. This dream felt far more realistic than anything she'd ever dreamt before. If she remembered correctly, the dream was about her eating dragon nip, trying to make a pass at Hiccup and then throwing up afterwards.

She sighed in relief, glad that her nightmare was finally over, before she turned to her right to notice Hiccup sitting nearly asleep in the chair next to her bed.

 _"Hiccup! What are you doing here?"_ the boy suddenly shot up as she said this, trying to stutter out an explanation with "oh! Uh... it's ju... um... you... you were sick, and... you, uh... y'threw up a few times... and, I uh... I..."

 _"Oh, gods, the dragon nip!"_ Astrid groaned as she put her face in her hands and collapsed back on the bed, having just realised that her nightmare was anything _but_ a dream. Hiccup rubbed the back of his head nervously, saying "y'know, you really scared me, Astrid... cause, well... you were doing some crazy things when you were under that stuff..."

 _"Pft... like what?"_ Astrid snarked as she looked back at him. Hiccup gulped worryingly as he thought for a second, clearly trying to say something that wouldn't embarrass her. Or himself.

"You were flapping your arms like a chicken, for one..." he lied, prompting them both to laugh heartily, laughing even louder as Hiccup continued with "and uh... uh, what else? Oh, right! You also said you wanted to have a spiky tail like Stormfly does so Snotlout would stay away from you..."

 _"Well I don't need dragon nip for that last one, ha ha ha!"_ Astrid was almost in pain from the laughing, before calming with a warm smile at Hiccup. He smiled back, before saying "so... something worth telling everyone else about, or just our little secret?"

 _"Hm... well, it'll never happen again, so I guess it'll be a funny story to tell... unless something else happened too..."_ Astrid said with a scoff, prompting Hiccup to rub the back of his head again, saying "uh... nope... nothing else... you just threw up after that and I brought you here to your house... so, yeah..."

Astrid chuckled, before saying _"well, it's great I didn't do anything else stupid..."_

"Yeah, it is, isn't it? Ha ha... sooooooooo... I should probably, y'know... leave, cause... your mom's gonna wanna take your temperature and stuff, so... I'll see y'tomorrow, Astrid..."

 _"Bye, Hiccup... and thanks..."_ Astrid said warmly as Hiccup waved nervously and left. She sighed in relief as she lay back down with the smile still on her face. It had finally occurred to her what just how great Hiccup really was to her.

She knew all too well what she did in the forge. What she _really_ did, and anyone else in Hiccup's shoes... well, _shoe..._ would have used it to blackmail, shame or just flat-out ruin her. But not Hiccup. He clearly had no intention of telling anyone what happened, not even Astrid herself. He just let it be forgotten about, like water under a bridge.

And there were two things Astrid now knew for certain: that Hiccup was probably her best friend, besides Stormfly obviously, and that she was _never_ eating dragon nip ever again.

* * *

 ** _"I wish that we could just end this story here... but I'm afraid that we've barely just begun..."_**


	4. Astrid's Olive Branch

**CHAPTER FOUR  
** **Astrid's Olive Branch**

* * *

 ** _"HEY! There she is! BOK-BOK-BOOOOOK!"_** was the first thing Astrid heard the twins saying as she walked out of her house the next morning. The riders were all waiting for her in front of the forge, Ruffnut and Tuffnut running in circles while making chicken noises with their hands tucked under their armpits. Astrid scoffed as she saw this, since it was clear that Hiccup's alibi for her incident had already become public knowledge.

"Well... look who's up..." Hiccup said as he finally looked up from the book he was drawing in to see Astrid walking over to them. She smirked, before groaning as Snotlout said _"so, Astrid... you enjoy your beauty sleep? It's certainly had an affect, if you know what I mean..."_

She scoffed bitterly, saying _"great... just when I was finally starting to feel better..."_

"I wouldn't feel too bad about it, Astrid..." Fishlegs cut in. "The thought about how consuming dragon nip affects the human mind is fascinating..."

 _"Yeah, I'm gonna stop you right there, Fishlegs, before you turn me into a science experiment..."_ Astrid snarked, before saying _"look, why don't we all just head up to the kill ring and practice some more tricks?"_

Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins all ran up excitedly to what would later become Berk's Dragon Training Academy, while Hiccup stayed behind to finish his drawing. Astrid stayed too, smiling warmly as she sat next to Hiccup silently and looked at the doodle he was doing of Toothless.

Hiccup chuckled as he looked up to face her, saying "so... you sure it's a good idea to practice tricks in your condition?"

He grunted as she hit him on the shoulder playfully, before she said _"that's for telling them about the chicken dance..."_

"And for everything else?" Hiccup snarked back, before Astrid let out a little grin as she quickly grabbed his fur vest and pulled him towards her, pecking him lightly on the cheek as she said _"and that's for covering my back..."_

"Wh... uh, I... I don't know what you're talking about..."

 _"Well... I guess that makes two of us..."_ Astrid joked as she patted him on the back before she got up and went with the others. Hiccup sighed as he looked where she had gone, before going wide-eyed as he noticed her beating up both the twins for doing their chicken dance.

* * *

 _ **"So... you might think, with my current suicide attempt and my blatant self-loathing up til this point, that this whole dragon nip drama is a one-woman show... well, that's not entirely true. For the most part it was a team-effort, and I think it's important to explain how the first of my partners-in-crime came to be... um... recruited..."**_

* * *

 **Six Months Later...**

"Easy, bud..." Hiccup had both hands up at Toothless, slowly motioning the dragon away from the terrified, raven-haired girl that was currently climbing out from under a shipwreck Snotlout had found.

She seemed to be in awe of what she was seeing, saying "h... how did you do that?"

 _"That? That's nothing... watch this!"_ Snotlout suddenly bragged loudly, before looking at his dragon and saying _"Hookfang! Get your butt over here!"_

The dragon snapped up as Snotlout yelled this, but responded to his demand by flying away. Hiccup and Astrid both rolled their eyes while Snotlout was wide-eyed at this, before laughing nervously as he looked back at the girl and said _"he'll be back... jokester... oh! And just so you know... I'm the one who rescued you..."_

Hiccup could tell that Snotlout's approach was making the girl feel anything but comfortable, so decided to intervene by politely saying "and... I would be Hiccup..."

The girl clearly felt at least somewhat more comfortable talking to him than to Snotlout, smiling weakly as she answered with "Heather..."

* * *

 _ **"When we first met Heather, I'd been clean for six months. Hiccup's story about my chicken dance was basically ancient history to even the most obsessive gossipers of Berk, and I'd not touched or thought about dragon nip since I nearly ended up in a puddle of my own puke in Gobber's forge. But then we needed suggestions for how to get the Book of Dragons back from the Outcasts after our new friend turned out to not be as trustworthy as everyone except me thought she was..."**_

* * *

"Y'know, all this training is nice once we _have_ the book, but Alvin's not just gonna hand it over to us..." Fishlegs snarked.

 _"No..."_ Astrid said as she got off Stormfly and stood between the two, seemingly agreeing with Fishlegs' point. She then glanced knowingly at Hiccup, before saying _"but maybe Alvin will hand it to Heather..."_

Hiccup took a moment to consider what she was saying, but Fishlegs simply said "uh... I think Astrid's been eating dragon nip again... **OW!** "

After Astrid elbowed his stomach, he clutched his injury and spat out "why is it _always_ violence with you?!"

 _"It's not violence. It's communication..."_ Astrid scoffed as she put her hands on her hips. Hiccup was still thinking about her previous words, saying "so you're suggesting that we let Heather go?"

 _"Sort of..."_

"Yep. Dragon nip..." Fishlegs snarked, before grunting in a high-pitched tone as Astrid sent another fist straight into his stomach.

* * *

 ** _"UGH! That was a one-time thing! Well, uh... well, it probably would have been if Fishlegs hadn't brought it up!"_**

* * *

 _"Pft... stupid Fishlegs, thinking I'm crazy... stupid everyone, not listening to me in the first place... ugh..."_ Astrid grunted under her breath as she sat in her room, putting on the green shirt and dirty brown tunic to complete her disguise. _"If they hadn't given that lying little tramp the Book of Dragons, I wouldn't be having to dress up like Hiccup's incestuous twin sister..."_

She sighed as she looked at herself in a mirror, still coughing lightly because of the soot she'd used to change her hair black. Once she cleared her throat, she tried her best to look sweet and innocent, putting on a more sultry voice and saying _"ooh, look at me, I'm Heather! I think your dragon likes me! Pft... gods... DAMMIT!"_

Astrid was barely thinking in her sudden burst of anger, so she didn't really notice herself reaching under her bed and pulling out her secret stash of dragon nip until she'd already opened the lid and had a clump of it clenched in her fist.

 _"Wait..."_ she froze just before she could put it in her mouth. _"No... no, not now..."_

She had a mission, and she didn't have time to eat dragon nip for escapism. It was up to her to get back the Book of Dragons from Alvin, and she knew that Berk and the entire Archipelago was counting on her. It had to be done, and when she had to do something, she did it.

So she put the dragon nip back in the box and shut the lid tight, sliding the box back under her bed and standing back up.

 _"Okay..."_ she said in a slightly calmer tone as she looked back at her reflection in the mirror while smirking. _"Now what shoulder does her braid go on?"_

* * *

 _ **"Do I feel bad talking about Heather like this now? Yes. Really bad. I mean, it's all in the past now, but... well, if I'm gonna be honest, I could have buried our hatchet a little differently..."**_

* * *

A few hours had passed since they all got back from Outcast Island. Astrid was sitting up in her room, groaning as she looked out her window at the dock. She could spot Heather's parents preparing the small ship that they were going to take back to their island. _Little Miss Innocent_ herself was nowhere to be seen however, no doubt because she wanted to attract as little attention as possible after what she did.

Astrid exhaled heavily, reaching under her bed to pull out her secret stash of dragon nip. After all the nonsense she'd been through over the last few days, surely there wasn't anything wrong with spoiling herself a little. Obviously, she had to make sure she was actually _alone_ this time, just to stop herself from making a scene like she did with Hiccup.

She held the box under her armpit as she quickly and discreetly nipped down the stairs out her front door and darted around the side of her house to Stormfly's pen. Her nadder was already fast-asleep, and surely no one would want to go near the dragon after Astrid had nearly thrown Heather into the ocean for taking her the first time, so the pen was the perfect place for privacy. Or so she thought.

 _ **KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!**_ "Uh... hey, Astrid?"

Astrid grabbed several strands of her own hair and pulled at it while she clenched her mouth shut and tried not to scream in fury. It was _her_ voice. Astrid wanted to be alone to enjoy her dragon nip anyway, but of all the people who could have shown up right now, quite possibly the last person she wanted to interrupt her besides Hiccup had to be Heather.

"Astrid, can you just open th... _ugh_..." she could hear Heather sigh to herself on the other side of the closed door. "Look... my parents and I are leaving in an hour, so you'll never have to see me ever again... but I just need to talk to you... okay, I know you hate me more than anyone else here does, but if we're going our separate ways for good we can at least do it on not-so-bad terms... _please?_ "

 _"Ugh..."_ Astrid scoffed under her breath as she hid the dragon nip in the corner of the pen and went to the door. As she opened it, she noticed that Heather was about a second away from leaving, clearly having not expected Astrid to open it, but she stayed and said "oh... great..."

 _"Alright... you wanted to talk..."_ Astrid snarked impatiently as she leaned against the door of the pen and crossed her arms. _"Let's talk..."_

"Look, I just... um..." Heather was clearly anxious and somewhat ashamed, but she straightened up formally and and said "well, Astrid, I guess... I guess I just want to tell you that I'm s..."

 ** _"No!"_** Astrid suddenly snapped in an unintentionally-aggressive manner that caused them both to go wide-eyed. After a few seconds of silence, Astrid slowly unclenched her fists and shrunk back a bit in embarrassment, brushing her hair back over her eyes and hoping that she didn't blush in front of Heather.

She hadn't meant to say that, in fact she hadn't meant to say anything. It was just a subconscious impulse, or an instinctive reaction, or something like that.

While she definitely had her reasons for doing it, this girl had spent the last week lying to the group and humiliating Astrid whenever she tried to call her out on it, and the last thing Astrid wanted to do now was let her have some moral superiority by letting her be the first to apologise.

 _"Um... I uh... I didn't mean to be so... blunt, then..."_ she said, eventually forcing a grin onto her face that helped put Heather more at ease. _"But, uh... well, I misjudged you, Heather... and I'd like to say sorry for that too..."_

"Oh, come on, Astrid... you had every right to be suspicious... and the fact that I made your boyfriend think you were crazy and then stole your dragon is something you have every right to be angry ab..."

 _" **Whoa-whoa-whoa-wait!** Just stop right there! What was that last part?"_

"Y'know, when I took the book and stole St..."

 _" **No, the first part!** The, uh... the boyfriend thing... cause I don't, uh... don't have a..."_

"Oh... right... wait, so you and Hiccup aren't a th... **WHOA!** "

Heather was panting rapidly with wide eyes again as a red-faced, furious Astrid suddenly grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, lifting her feet just off the ground and pinning her against the interior wall of the pen.

 _ **"Now you listen to me, you smug, disloyal little know-it-all! I'm gonna let you apologise for stealing my dragon, playing us all like fiddles and making me look like a moron! But if you say anything about my personal relationships again, I'll feed you to Stormfly! You hear me?!"**_

"I'm sorry!" Heather blurted out, clearly terrified for her life as she stuttered out "I... I didn't m... I just, uh... I just came to conclusions, that's all... that's all!"

 ** _"RRRAAAAAGGGGHHH!"_**

Heather tensed and shut her eyes as Astrid pulled back her fist for a punch, only for Astrid to let go off her as she punched the wooden wall hard. Heather quickly scrambled to the doorway, struggling for breath as she clutched her stomach and coughed slightly.

 ** _"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!"_** Astrid was slamming her head against the interior wall where she had Heather pinned up not a minute beforehand. After finally letting out a loud, visceral groan, she turned back to look at a still-terrified Heather.

Astrid's face had gone back to it's normal colour, and she sounded slightly more out-of-breath as she said _"I'm sorry I uh... I lashed out, then... I know you weren't being, ugh... just... I just overreacted..."_

"Pft... understatement of the year..."

 _ **"What did you just say?!"**_

"Nothing!"

 _"Yeah. Thought so..."_ Astrid still had a hint of a threatening snarl in her tone, before she shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She put her palm to her face, thinking for a moment about what to do. Her voice went back to normal as she said _"well, assuming you're not moving in with Hiccup, I guess I'd better give you something to say goodbye for good..."_

"Oh, come on, you don't need to d..."

 _"No no, I insist..."_ Astrid turned around and turned back holding the box. _"I was saving this for myself, but... well, Hiccup'd kill me if he found out I still had this, so I might as well get rid of the evidence... two birds with one stone, right?"_

She held it for Heather to take, saying _"it's dragon nip... for, uh... for recreational use..."_

"Oh... thank you..." Heather curiously took the box from Astrid and looked at it for a moment. "Uh... wait, isn't this the stuff that made you dance like a chicken or something?"

 _"Pft... gods, no... it doesn't actually do any of that... that's just a story Hiccup told everyone..."_

"Right, so..." Heather kept the lid on the box as she held it. "Wow, just... I don't really know what to say, Astrid..."

 _"Well... let's just call it a peace offering..."_

"An... olive branch, then?"

 _"Yeah, it's not branches. It's grass... so..."_ Astrid snarked back with a smirk on her face.

"Oh! You're making jokes now, are you?" Heather had an eyebrow raised as they both laughed. Heather still had a smile on her face as she said "well, uh... thanks for the gift, and... I guess I won't see you round, so I guess I'll just say goodbye..."

 _"Well, I'll probably see you off when you're leaving..."_ Astrid answered back. Five minutes ago she had every intention of just sitting in the pen getting high off of dragon nip when Heather was leaving, so she'd even surprised herself by what she'd just said.

"Oh, um... okay, then... I guess we're squared, then..." Heather finally mustered enough courage to extend a hand forwards. Astrid grinned as she took the hand and shook it, both of them feeling notably better about themselves and each other.

* * *

 _ **"So, that was my attempt at an olive branch... a symbol of peace and putting the past behind you... but, ironically and unfortunately, this particular olive branch that I offered to Heather went on to do anything but that..."**_


	5. Astrid's Peer Pressure

**CHAPTER FIVE  
** **Astrid's Peer Pressure**

* * *

 **4 Years Later...**

 _"So... what exactly did you wanna talk to me about?"_ Astrid asked as they landed on a small cove a few miles away from Berk. They dismounted their dragons and, after Stormfly had lit a fire for them to keep them both warm, sat on the cliff edge overlooking the sea.

* * *

 _ **"So, having just about forgotten about the dragon nip completely, we crossed paths with a much less sweet and much more badass Heather. After reuniting her with her brother, becoming friends with another island full of dragon lovers and taking down an empire of Dragon Hunters, everything was back to normal and happier than ever. Then Heather and I went out for a flight together..."**_

* * *

Heather seemed to let out a groan and a laugh at the same time, before saying "well, since my brother's currently occupied accommodating Berserker Island for my new sister-in-law, I thought it'd be the best time to catch up with you guys on Berk..."

 _"Right... and flying away from Berk is the best way to do that, then?"_ Astrid had an eyebrow raised as she said this. Heather grinned, trying not to giggle as she said "well, that's for something I wanna show you later, but... seriously, how's everyone at Berk, Astrid?"

 _"Uh... great. Yeah, never better... y'know, we're not really getting into life-threatening situations anymore and Hiccup's covering himself in every gadget he can think of now, so it's not boring at least..."_

"Hm... well, Dagur told me that Stoick has to go renew the treaty with that Bog Burglar tribe next week... they're a bunch of all-women warriors, right?"

 _"Yeah... but they're coming to Berk this time... y'know, to see the dragons... Hiccup's over the moon about it, and I'm anything but..."_

"I should say... Hiccup's usually terrible with people... especially women..." Heather snarked. Astrid tried to seem amused, but it was clear that there was something worrying her. _"Uh-huh... look, um... there's this girl, okay?"_

"Girl?"

 _"Yeah, the Chief's daughter... um... right, what was her n... oh, yeah, Camicazi... yeah, so, it turns out she was basically Hiccup's first actual friend before he shot down Toothless... they only see each other at these signings but they write all the time, and every time he talks about her he's always so excited and... ugh..."_

Heather scoffed, before saying "come on, Astrid, you're not thinking clearly... there is no way in Hel that Hiccup would have eyes for anyone but you..."

 _"Well, while she was saving his life when your brother tried to drown him and actually listening to and sticking up for him, what was I doing? Ignoring him, belittling him and making him sharpen my axe whenever I was willing to lower myself to even go near him... I think that's gonna lead to some bias, don't you? Hel, he's not even bothered to tell Toothless about her either, so the Gods know how he's gonna react to her..."_

"Sounds like you're gonna need a coping strategy... which is why I wanted to talk to you out here..." Heather had a mischievous little grin on her face as she reached into her satchel.

 _"Ugh... you have gotta be kidding me..."_ was the only thing Astrid could groan out as she looked at the small clump of dragon nip that Heather took out.

"What? You think I forgot our little olive branch? Besides, I've got a new trick to show you..."

 _"Heather, come on, I haven't touched that stuff for years now... Hel, I gave that first box to you so I could get it away from me!"_ Astrid whined in protest as Heather reached into her satchel again and pulled out a small, square sheet of paper.

"Oh, don't be such a buzzkill, Astrid... here, check this out..." Heather crumpled the dragon nip into smaller pieces and put it on the sheet, before rolling the sheet into a tube and twisting either end so that the dragon nip pieces didn't fall out. She held one end over the fire that Stormfly had lit, putting the other end into her mouth and inhaled it deeply.

 ** _"HEATHER!"_** Astrid cried out as she noticed Heather becoming dizzy, darting over to stop her from toppling over. Heather managed to save herself from as she leaned back against the rock behind her, using her to pull herself so she was sitting straight on it.

"No, no, it's fine... it's okay... it's okay..." she seemed to be somewhat back to normal as she put up her hands to try calming Astrid down. She was laughing as before, but there was still something _off_ about her.

"See, smoking it like this actually makes the good side effects better, and the bad side effects are gone completely..." she explained, before reaching into her satchel.

 _"Ugh... seriously..."_ Astrid groaned out as Heather pullled out a small bag full of dragon nip and several more sheets, holding them up to her and saying "go ahead, you try it..."

 _"What? No!"_

"Aw, come on..."

 _"No way..."_

"You can give it a try..."

 _"I'm not going to..."_

"It'll help you cope with Camicazi..."

 _"I don't care..."_

"Just one..."

 _"Heather!"_

"Astrid..."

 _ **"Alright, fine!"**_ Astrid snapped, groaning as she snatched the sheets and the dragon nip out of Heather's hands. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath, before finally letting out _"I'll try them on the day..."_

"Trust me, Astrid, it'll be fine... just look at m... _oh gods_..."

Astrid remained sitting down, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes in annoyance as Heather quickly ran to the edge of the cliff and began violently spewing down the side of it. It seemed she'd lied when she said the bad side effect was gone completely. Astrid looked at what she was holding in her hands, sighing as she went to Stormfly's saddle and shoved it into one of the satchels, making sure she buried it deep so no one back home could accidentally discover it.

* * *

 _ **"As luck would have it, though, I didn't end up needing the dragon nip for Camicazi's visit after all..."**_

* * *

 _"Oh… my… **Gods!** "_ Cami said suddenly as her jaw dropped. _**"You must be Astrid! Eek! I've been so excited about meeting you!"**_

 _"I'm sorry, wh- **UGH!** "_ Astrid choked as she was suddenly wrapped in a tight hug by Cami. Her eyes widened as if they were going to be squeezed out of her skull, and she was certain that she could hear a few of her bones and ribs being crushed as well.

When Cami finally released her, Astrid leaned slightly on the side of the dock, holding her stomach and trying to catch her breath as she said _"so… you're Camicazi, huh?"_

 _"Well, I prefer my friends call me Cami."_

Astrid was taken back a bit by this surprising friendliness, but she straightened up a bit as Cami began inspecting her face.

 _"Oh Gods… you are so beautiful…"_ Cami said, admiring Astrid as if she were her biggest fan. _"I am so happy you guys are finally betrothed!"_

 _"Betrothed? Aw… Hiccup…"_ Astrid looked at him, clearly touched. _"You told her about us?"_

"Obviously." Hiccup said with a smug grin.

 _"What? Are you kidding?"_ Cami scoffed with her hands on her hips as she glanced at him. _"Hiccup used to talk about you every time our parents had these meetings. He used to draw you all the time too."_

 _"Draw?!"_

"Okay, thanks, Cami." Hiccup said awkwardly, before looking to his smiling betrothed. "Yeah… I didn't, Astrid. She's… she's just kidding…"

Astrid continued grinning as Cami said _"yeah, he actually did. Had a whole notebook. I stole it from him once... in fact…"_

She reached into her shirt and pulled out a small, rusty brown notebook, Astrid holding her mouth to keep in laughter as Cami passed it to her and said _"this is my little wedding present to you, soon-to-be Mrs Haddock…"_

 _"Thank you so much…"_ Astrid gratefully accepted the gift and held it in her hand as Cami turned to Hiccup and said _"so, I've not been on that boat for hours just so I can sit here getting bored on a dock. I wanna see how much this town's changed, and I definitely wanna meet that Night Fury of yours, Hiccup!"_

Cami ran ahead frantically, Hiccup about to chase after her before Astrid calmly held his hand. He grinned as he turned to her, saying "so… what do you think?"

 _"Hiccup… I love her…"_ Astrid said as they slowly walked behind her. _"Please tell me she's gonna come to the wedding…"_

* * *

 ** _"I have to admit, Cami's first visit to Berk ended much better than I thought it would. But obviously, she wasn't entirely accepted by everyone, specifically Snotlout and the Twins, so while they took her and Toothless outside for a little friendly murder attempt, Heather and I were left in the Great Hall to discuss our new friend..."_**

* * *

"See? What'd I tell you?" Heather laughed as they sat next to each other in the slightly less busy table. "You're nowhere near as miserable today as you _could_ have been..."

 _"Yeah, Cami does seem pretty great..."_

"Well, yeah, she is pretty great anyway... but, um..." Heather glanced across the table to make sure Hiccup was too busy talking to Stoick and Bertha. She leaned slightly towards Astrid, saying "I was talking about that little _thing_ I gave you last week..."

 _"Wh... oh, uh... that, right... look, Heather..."_ Astrid exhaled, before adding _"I don't think I'm gonna take that stuff... I don't need it, I don't want it, and uh... if Hiccup found out about it, he'd probably lose his mind..."_

Heather scoffed, saying "alright... well, you're the one who missed out..." Heather patted Astrid on the back, before adding "but don't worry... we'll _never_ mention it again..."

Astrid smirked, saying _"thanks, Heather..."_

* * *

 ** _"Peer pressure really is a horrible thing, isn't it? Well... at least it still feels like peer pressure..."_**

* * *

Astrid sat on her bed that night, sitting back with a groan as she thought about the satchel of dragon nip that was sitting on the table in front of the window. She was practically pulling her hair out as she thought about whether or not to act on Heather's words.

 _"Come on, don't do it! NO! We're never mentioning it again... she said we're never mentioning again but what if she's lying... what if you tried it just once and said you hated it? NO! Because we won't hate it! Ugh... come on, don't be a coward. This has to be done, so you don't think about doing it again... you're **the** Fearless Astrid Hofferson... when you have to do something, you do it! No questions asked... come on... let's just get this over with... who knows? It might actually be better than last time...?"_

With great reluctance but equally great stubbornness, Astrid slowly got off of her bed and shut the bedroom door tight so she wasn't disturbed, before walking over to the table and pulling out one of the sheets and a handful of the dragon nip. It took her a few attempts to correctly fold and crumple the paper so that the dragon nip didn't fall out, and she held one end over the candle next to her on the table. She held the other end to her mouth, sighing as she prepared to breathe it in.

 _"Just this one try..."_ she said to herself before she took it. _"Just this once..."_


	6. Astrid's Business Venture

**CHAPTER SIX  
** **Astrid's Business Venture**

* * *

The next day, Cami's ship had just gone when Astrid left Hiccup and Toothless standing together on the dock. She went into the village, where she noticed Heather standing and feeding Windshear. _"Heather! Hey, Heather!"_

"Oh, hi Astrid. Did Cami go already?"

 _"Uh, yeah. Yeah, she did..."_ Astrid was rubbing her arm with slight nervousness, and a shocked yet smug smile came to Heather's face when she noticed the bags under her eyes. Astrid was just about to speak before Heather loudly blurted out **"oh my Gods! You actually took it! Ha ha, I knew it!"**

 _"Shut up!"_ Astrid hissed like a viper as she put her hand over Heather's mouth and they both moved behind one of the houses so no one could hear them. _"Are you trying to tell the whole damn village about it!?"_

"Alright, alright. No need to get so defensive, gee..."

 _"Look, Heather, when I woke up this morning, I had an idea, and I need you to tell me whether or not it's a good one, right?"_

"Is it some kind of hangover cure? Ha ha... because no offence, but y'look awful..."

Astrid chuckled, before saying _"nope, and I don't need one. Look, Heather... how'd you like to make some money...?"_

"Money? What, like gold?"

 _"Yes."_

"Okay, but h..." Heather suddenly went wide-eyed, before blurting out **"NO! No, you're not talking about th..."**

 _"Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, let me finish..."_ Astrid was suddenly far more calm and collected. _"What if I told you, Heather, that we could make a quick buck through secretly and discreetly dealing and exchanging dragon nip all around the Archipelago...?"_

"I'd ask how you plan to do that, Astrid... and also, I'd probably point out the fact that _secretly_ and _discreetly_ are basically the same thing..."

* * *

 _ **"Hiccup didn't know it yet, but I'd put an extra little present in that dragon training manual he'd given to Cami. It went something like this..."**_

* * *

 _Hey, Cami. This is Astrid._  
 _It was really great to meet you at last. I was fearing the worst, but it was such good fun having you here._  
 _Anyway, in this envelope is something we use to calm down our dragons. But it's also really good to try for yourself, provided you can get past the puking.  
I'm planning on starting a little business with this, so I was wondering if you'd be interested in helping me deal it.  
Just send a response via Terror-Mail. Hope to hear from you soon.  
Astrid. X  
P.S. Hiccup doesn't know about this, so I'd prefer if you didn't tell him..._

* * *

 _ **"So my business had just about begun. In the next couple weeks, Hiccup suddenly ended up becoming chief, and it was gonna be a lot easier to pick up some more employees..."**_

* * *

 _"So, as I'm hoping the three of you understand..."_ Astrid said as she stood at the front of the Training Academy, with Cami, Eret and Gustav standing opposite her. _"What we're doing here isn't exactly legal, and if we're caught then, well, we're screwed, I guess..."_

Gustav scoffed, saying "Astrid, _baby_ , I think you're underestimating us here... kay, we _know_ the risks..."

 _"Oh, do you..."_ Astrid snarked in an aggressive tone as she got closer to him, eventually being inches away from his face. _"Well, Gustav, I guess all you need to know is that if I end up getting in trouble because of you screwing up, then I'm not taking any prisoners when I drag your skinny, whiny little ass down to Hel with me. **UNDERSTAND?!** "_

"Y-y-yes, ma'am..." a wide-eyed Gustav answered back, clearly looking as though he'd almost wet himself. She darted her eyes at a surprised Eret and Cami, snapping out **_"anybody else?!"_**

"Nope. Uh-uh..." they both answered as quickly and carefully as possible, only for Astrid to suddenly brighten up again. _"Great. Now, once Heather gets us some buyers, I'll tell each of you guys where to go..."_

* * *

 _ **"I had more than enough delivery riders at this point, but I wanted more... obviously, it was gonna be tough to get recruits without drawing attention to our business, but after some... eventful, misunderstandings when Hiccup and I decided to ask for his mother's blessing, it turns out I was owed a service by a certain little weasel that tried to take my betrothed from me..."**_

* * *

"Uh... you wanted to talk...?" Ruffnut said as she shyly opened the door to the forge and walked in. Astrid sat at the table with her arms folded, the doors and windows around them being closed to prevent intrusion.

On the other side of the table was an unoccupied chair, which Astrid pointed to as she said _"sit down, Ruff..."_

"Look, I know this is about that thing with Hiccup last week, but you have my absolute word. Nothing like that is ever gonna h..."

 _"You're damn right it's never gonna happen again..."_ Astrid interrupted bluntly without giving up the straight, serious look on her face. She said _"look, Ruff... I just wanna start things over with you... I value your friendship, and I felt really hurt by this betrayal. But I'll tell you what... you do this job for me, and we forget all about the whole blessing incident with Valka? Hm? What do you say?"_

"Yes! Yes, of course I wanna do that... yeah..."

 _"Great... wow, fantastic... just fantastic..."_ Astrid had a warm smile on her face, causing Ruffnut to wipe a happy tear from her eye as she said "Gods... thanks, Astrid... I'm really glad we could sort this out... you really don't know what this means to me, pal..."

 _"Yeah. Me too, Ruff... now go ahead and drop your pants so we can get started..."_

Ruffnut froze with wide eyes, saying "uh... I'm sorry, come again..."

 _"You and your brother are gonna be flying to Berserker Island tonight, and you'll be leaving just before sunset... it's best that Tuff doesn't know what you're actually doing since then we can have some deniability if you screw up..."_

"Wait, I... I don't understand..."

 _"Hm..."_ Astrid grinned smugly, before looking to her right and saying **_"well, it looks like this brickhead doesn't know what she's gotten herself into..."_**

"Uh... Astrid, who are you talking to?"

 _"Look, I'm gonna be blunt with you, Ruff..."_ Astrid shot back as she reached into her desk to pull out several small, wrapped bags and set them on the table for Ruffnut to see. _"I want you to take these little bags of dragon nip I've got here and shove them **-pop-** right up your ass..."_

"I'm sorry, _what's_ happening?"

 _"Don't interrupt... now, once they're up there you should probably try your best not to move around too much... otherwise one of the bags could burst and you'll probably find yourselves getting high off this sweet stuff right there and then..."_

"Would it kill me?!" Ruffnut asked with wide, worried eyes, though Astrid shrugged and simply said _"dunno... but I'd more worried about you making a scene and getting caught... because then this whole operation's gonna come crashing down and we're all gonna be in big trouble..."_

"But... I thought this was a real job..."

Astrid scoffed, keeping her smug grin on her face as she looked to her right again and said **_"well, the Thorstons have once again surprised me with just how stupid they can actually be..."_**

"Okay, seriously though, Astrid, who are you _actually_ talking to?"

 ** _"I'm on dragon nip, alright!"_**

Ruffnut wrung her hands together worryingly, before Astrid went back to smiling and continued with _"anyway, you're gonna arrive at Berserker Island and Heather's gonna meet you there and take you to her house..."_

Ruffnut gulped, before saying "uh... Astrid, I don't know if I c..."

 _"Then once you're at her house all you've gotta do is just **pop** these little bags back out again..."_

"Am I getting _paid_ for this?!"

 _"Then Heather's gonna give you the gold that her buyers have given her for this stuff and all you've gotta do then is bring that gold back to me..."_

Ruffnut was still wide-eyed as Astrid finished talking, both of them sitting silently for about ten seconds. Astrid was about to open her mouth before Ruffnut suddenly burst into slightly-less nervous laughter.

 **"WAH HA HA HA HA HAAA! OH... OH-HO GODS, YOU... HA HA! Ugh, you... you got me good there, Astrid! Ha ha ha!** Uh... right?"

 _"Ha ha... no, I'm serious..."_ Astrid answered back in a more blunt tone than before. Ruffnut looked worried, but Astrid kept a smile on her own face as she said _"but hey... you do this job for me, and we forget all about the whole blessing incident with Valka, right?"_

Ruffnut gulped nervously, before she scratched her arm and said "right..."

* * *

 ** _"Before you criticise me for being a bad boss, I'd like to remind you that Ruff was the only one who was actually using this method. She did owe me one, after all..."_**


	7. Astrid's Stressful Work

**CHAPTER SEVEN  
** **Astrid's Stressful Work**

* * *

That night, Astrid was sitting on her bed looking in Hiccup's old book of drawings that Cami had given her, chortling at some drawings and admiring the ones that showed notable improvement in his art style.

"Astrid?" Hiccup called up as he and Toothless came into the house. _"I'm up here, babe!"_ she called back as she quickly darted out of the bed and slid down the stair banister, leaping off of it and into Hiccup's embrace. This would have knocked them both onto the floor if Toothless hadn't been there to catch them.

"Well, you seem a little... _energetic_ tonight..." Hiccup scoffed as she finally let go of him.

 _"Hm... I guess I'm just happy..."_ Astrid smiled. _"Turns out me and Ruff were able to finally patch things up today..."_

"Oh, wow... that's uh... that's absolutely great... y'know, I'm actually really glad about that, Astrid, I mean... it'll be hard enough to build that utopia without this thing getting in the way..."

 _"Pft... well, good news is we don't have to worry about Ruff anymore after what she did, right?"_

"Whatever you say, Milady..." Hiccup kissed Astrid lightly on the lips before they both laughed as he lifted her up into a bridal carry. As he sat down on the couch in front of the fire and Astrid wrapped her arms around his neck while now sitting on his lap, he added "so... how exactly _did_ you guys patch things up, anyway?"

 _"Hm... well, let's just say I made Ruff a job offer she couldn't refuse, okay?"_

"Uh... okay..." Hiccup simple shrugged and lay back on the couch as Astrid cuddled next to him with their eyes both shut. They both laughed as Toothless ended up sitting under them, with Astrid patting the dragon's head affectionately.

* * *

 _ **"So after all the nonsense with Ruff and Val, everything seemed to finally be going our way... the business carried on without any trouble whatsoever and we were all keeping it hidden enough for Hiccup to never find out. So it carried on without a hitch for the first two months... or at least I thought it did, until Heather gave me some not-so-great news regarding one of our workers..."**_

* * *

"Uh... you wanted to talk...?"

 _"Uh-huh... yeah, Gustav, just come on in..."_ Astrid made a beckoning gesture with her hand as Gustav came into the forge where she was already sitting down at the table. Cami, Eret, Ruffnut and Heather were all sitting behind her, with a seat on the other end of the table facing in front of her for Gustav to sit on. _"Sit down..."_

"Uh... okay..." Gustav casually took the seat, putting his feet up on the table before a glare from Astrid prompted him to put them back down again. "So... what's up?"

 _"Those are some heavy bags under your eyes there, Gustav... trouble sleeping?"_

"Oh, uh... nah, no, not really... just a little uh... worked over..."

 _"Hm. Well, I hope you're feeling better, because it turns out Heather's been looking through the papers we've put together for our buyers and how much money we're getting through the dragon nip dealings..."_

"Everything seemed okay for everyone else..." Heather explained as she looked at the others. "Cami's on track over on the Burglar Isle, Eret's _exceeding_ his quotas at the Whispering Trees. Even Ruff's making her quotas on the Berserker Island shipments..."

Ruffnut grinned nervously, obviously being less-than-proud of the methods she'd used to make those quotas, before Heather looked at Gustav and said "but it seems we're short by at least a third of our gold quota over on the Uglithug Island... which, in a bizarre coincidence, happens to be _your_ jurisdiction in this operation, Gustav..."

"Oh... I wonder why that is..."

 _"We did too..."_ Astrid said. _"So we took a little trip over to the Uglithugs yesterday and met with our main guy... it turns out your shipments have been turning up a little lighter than what the customers asked for, Gustav..."_

"Oh, uh... well... well, that's weird..."

 _"I know, right?"_ Astrid laughed in a false, patronising tone. _"Ha ha... because... it almost seems someone was having little... well, little private parties... if you know what I mean?"_

"Pft, what? Come on... seriously? What kind of idiot would be dumb enough to steal my..."

 _ **"CUT THE CRAP, GUSTAV! WE ALL KNOW YOU DID IT!"**_ Cami suddenly slammed her fist on the table, even causing Astrid to jolt a bit in shock. She sat back down as Astrid cleared her throat and took a moment to get back to her strict demeanour, saying _"um... so yeah, Cami's right, Gustav..."_

"Oh, come on, Astrid! You're gonna believe the shaggy-haired, crazy Bog Burglar girl?"

 _"The crazy Bog Burglar girl who's also Hiccup's childhood friend that notoriously always speaks her mind regardless of how bad it seems? Uh... yeah... yeah, I think I am gonna believe her over you. Especially since Eret was actually there with her when they saw you doing it..."_

"How did you see me?! When did you see me?! You got no right spying on m..." Gustav began to rant at first, before silently sinking back down with his palm to his face as he realised what he had just said.

 _"Hm..."_ Astrid had an eyebrow raised. _"Well, now that he's admitted it, remind me again where you two saw him taking it..."_

"The first was the same day Cami and I'd had that falling out over Heather..." Eret explained. Heather scoffed at this, since she'd only recently been able to walk without limping again after that incident. But still, they'd let bygones be bygones and everything was somewhat back to normal with them, so it wasn't really much of a problem anymore.

 _"Yeah, when Eret and I were racing round the island before the fighting started, we saw Fanghook and Gustav setting off for the Uglithugs..."_ Cami added, though in a much calmer tone than before. _"I remember he was reaching into the bag with the goods in it. Thought nothing of it then, obviously, but then last week we saw him again..."_

"This time we saw him take at least five or six clumps out of the satchel and shove it in his pocket before he and Fanghook had even set off..." Eret said while Gustav sank even lower in his seat. Astrid had her arms crossed and was breathing slightly heavier through her scowl than before, which made Gustav even more fearful for himself.

 _"Well, I guess that explains the bags under your eyes, too..."_ she snarked. _"But that's not even the problem, Gustav. You wanna know what the problem is?"_

"Uh... what's the problem?"

"Our Uglithug buyers gave us an ultimatum..." Heather said bluntly. "Either we start delivering what we promised them, or they rat us out to their chief, who in turn will rat us out to the other islands which would eventually reach Dagur and, of course, Hiccup..."

 _"Yep..."_ Astrid snarled through gritted teeth, clearly being on a razor's edge of losing her temper. Gustav gulped and itched his arm nervously, saying "Astrid, please... I didn't mean t..."

 ** _"I TOLD YOU WHAT WAS GONNA HAPPEN IF WE GOT IN TROUBLE BECAUSE OF YOU SCREWING UP!"_** she shouted loudly as she jolted up and lifted him up by the shirt. Her shouting would have exposed all of them there and then if the doors and windows in the forge hadn't all been shut. _**"YET YOU STILL WENT BEHIND MY BACK AND NOW YOU'RE GONNA GET US IN THIS MESS!"**_

"Uh... what um... what do we do then?" he stuttered out. Astrid exhaled as she put him back down and sat back in her chair, saying _"well, one thing's for certain. You're **done** , Gustav..."_

 **"WHAT?!"**

"Ooh, ooh, can I do it?!" Ruffnut had a hand raised as she suddenly squealed like an excited little girl. Cami was like this too as she pulled out one of her swords and said _"yeah, I wanna do it too! Please, Astrid?! Please?!"_

 _"What, no! No, no, no!"_ Astrid turned to face them and had both her hands raised. _"That's not what I meant by that at all!"_

"Oh, well, the way you said he was done sounded very Drago-ish..." Eret said casually, but a glare from Astrid made him shut up again. As Cami and Ruffnut sat back down in slight disappointment, Astrid turned back to Gustav with a scowl on her face.

 _"So, I think it's clear from that reaction that you won't be missed, Gustav..."_

"Look, Astrid, are you gonna kill him or not?" Heather said sarcastically. "Because if you're not, can you refrain from the death-threat sounding stuff like that?"

 _"We are **not** going to kill him!"_ she snapped loud enough for the others to hear. _"For Thor's sake, we're dragon nip dealers, not an organised crime ring!"_

"Pft... could have fooled me..." Gustav snarked. "So how exactly am I done?"

 _"What do you think it means?"_ she said. _"You're out. You're fired. You're not working with us anymore! Ergo... you're done!"_

"Wait, you're kicking me out? Come on, that's overreacting, isn't it?"

 _"Did you not see Cami getting her sword out a second ago?"_ she snarked back as Cami laughed louder than she should have done. _"If anything, it's under-reacting..."_

"So that's it, then? I'm out? What about the Uglithugs?"

 _"Heather's good at multitasking... she can do it no problem... not to mention that a four-way-split of the gold is a lot better for us than a five-way-split..."_ Astrid said without much thought or concern. _"So uh... yeah... bye-bye, Gustav..."_

"Pft... fine... you wanna sit here like losers getting high off dragon nip, be my guest! Don't let me get in the way of your fun!" Gustav snapped as he stormed away, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Hm... well, I gotta say, Astrid, you actually handled that better than I expected..." Heather said.

Astrid scoffed, saying _"it was actually pretty easy. Besides, if he tries giving us trouble for this, **then** Cami and Ruff can kill him."_

 _ **"Ha ha! Yeah!"**_ Cami and Ruffnut were still slightly too enthusiastic about this as they high-fived one another. Heather looked at Astrid, who laughed and said _"oh, come on, I was kidding that time..."_

Eret scoffed at this, looking at Cami and Ruffnut and saying "so do you two just love killing or do you just hate Gustav?"

* * *

 ** _"So, that was one big problem taken care of... and a much bigger one unintentionally created..."_**


	8. Astrid’s Bad News

**CHAPTER EIGHT  
** **Astrid's Bad News**

* * *

 _ **"A week had passed since Gustav was kicked out of the business, and we'd just about recovered from the setbacks he'd put on it. We were all making bigger profits than before, and that little shrimp was keeping his mouth shut about it. Or so I thought..."**_

* * *

The entire village was frantically talking as they gathered in the Great Hall. Astrid was still yawning as she made her way through the crowd, being just as ignorant as the rest of them about why the Chief had called this urgent gathering so early in the morning.

 _"Ugh... hey, guys... what's going on?"_ she asked as she went to the rest of the group. Snotlout and Fishlegs both shrugged while Tuffnut was still asleep as he stood up while leaning his head on Ruffnut's shoulder. Before anyone could say anything, the muttering in the crowd ceased as Hiccup came into the Great Hall and stood at the middle of the long, rectangular table where the tribe's main council were convened.

It all seemed normal enough at first, with Valka and Gobber standing on Hiccup's right side while Spitelout and Gothi stood on his left. But then her eyes widened as she saw the familiar helmet and scrawny silhouette of the boy standing right behind Hiccup.

 _"Gustav..."_ she was able to force out under her breath as she glanced at an equally-concerned Ruffnut and Eret. Hiccup finally cleared his throat, before saying **"uh... hey, uh... morning, everybody, um... really sorry to get this meeting together so early, but this is pretty urgent..."**

Astrid forced a smile onto her face while gulping nervously, Hiccup smiling back as if this gave him some reassurance as he spoke.

 **"Well, uh... Gustav here came to me yesterday... he had something important to tell me. See, for the past couple months, before the whole Drago thing, it turns out that a small group of individuals, who we've yet to identify, have been partaking in the widespread dealing of... ugh... of _dragon nip_..."**

There were a few laughs and chortles in the crowd as Hiccup said this, seemingly implying that these people weren't really taking his words seriously and were wondering why they had to get together so early to discuss this. Astrid looked at Ruffnut and Eret, who were clearly just laughing to not stand out since their laughter was far more nervous and practically staged in comparison.

She looked at Hiccup, knowing just by his awkward silence and body language that he wasn't expecting them to laugh and wasn't sure how to continue his speech. Astrid couldn't bear to see him like this. She had to do something. Or say something.

 ** _"This isn't a joke, you guys!"_** she shouted suddenly, prompting everyone to go silent. She hadn't believed that she'd actually said it at first, but it was clear that she had since everyone in the Hall was now staring at her. She looked at a confused Hiccup, and nodded confidently, before walking around the table and standing next to her betrothed. She held his hand encouragingly before she said **_"dragon nip being dealt like this isn't a laughing matter... we all remember what happened to me when I tried it that time..."_**

 _"Oh yeah, the chicken dance!"_ Snotlout called out, prompting a few more laughs from the crowd, though notably less than the last time. Astrid scowled at him, before saying _**"no, actually... I'm talking about how I ended up violently puking all over Gobber's stall and ended up being bedridden til noon the next day... that wasn't exactly hilarious, was it?"**_

Just as she thought it would, the laughter died down, before Hiccup nodded and tightened his grip on her hand. She looked at him and they exchanged a warm smile. She knew just how much it meant to Hiccup that she was helping him with this, and it made her feel even worse about the fact that she was mainly doing this to direct suspicion away from herself.

 **"Last night I got back Terror Mail from Dagur, Bertha, the Uglithugs and the Whispering Trees..."** he said. **"This is happening all over the Archipelago, and it's even worse than what happened to Astrid that time..."**

 _"How so?"_ one of the men in the crowd asked. Hiccup, now more confident with Astrid's support, said **"well, we've gotten reports that people aren't just eating it like Astrid did... they're actually wrapping it in tubes of paper and smoking it... and they're doing it out in the open when they're doing their daily routines... on Berserker Island a guy got buried under a bunch of barrels because he was too high to notice that he was holding them... and a guy nearly drowned on the Uglithug Isle because he was taking it while fishing and tried to save his reflection from drowning..."**

 _"Oh Gods..."_ even Astrid went wide-eyed at this, with many of the mutterings from the crowd sounding far more concerned and serious about what Hiccup was saying now. She glanced at Ruffnut and Eret, who worryingly shrugged in confusion about how to react.

Hiccup cleared his throat again and pulled out a notebook, opening it and saying **"that's why the other chiefs and I have all come to the conclusion that the best way to solve this problem before it gets any worse is to nip it in the bud..."**

Toothless, who was standing behind Hiccup and looking at the tapestry on the wall, suddenly perked up his ears as Hiccup said this and shoved in between Hiccup and Astrid. Hiccup smiled at the Night Fury and patted his head, saying **"no, not _you_ , bud..."** as he and the others in the Hall all laughed. Hiccup was clearly far more at ease than he was when the meeting started, especially since the village was now laughing _with_ him instead of _at_ him.

When the laughter died down after a few moments, Hiccup went back to a slightly more serious tone as he said **"no, what I _actually_ meant was that we need to find whoever's dealing this stuff and stop it at the source... that's why we're gonna be imposing some new security measures around our islands..."**

 _"Security measures?!"_ Astrid asked with wide eyes, having just managed to make her voice sound curious instead of worried. Hiccup nodded, before saying **"for the next couple weeks when you're leaving and arriving at these five islands, you may be subject to random storage searches. This is basically a quick brush through your luggage and saddle just to see if you're carrying dragon nip..."**

Ruffnut raised her hand at this, prompting both Hiccup and Astrid to go wide-eyed for different reasons. **"Ruff?"**

"Well, just wondering, Chief... what if the dragon nip that we're carrying _is_ actually for our dragons and has nothing to do with this horrible, suspicious dealing?"

 **"I'm really glad you asked that, Ruff, because that's my next point..."** Hiccup said as he turned the page in his notebook. **"The dragon nip fields on each of our islands will be kept under tight security and overseen by an appointed, trusted official... if you need dragon nip for your dragons, just go to the official at the garden and you'll be supervised when you're using it on your dragon..."**

There were murmurs in the crowd, some slightly worried but the majority of them seemingly being in agreement with these new measures. **"Now I know these restrictions will probably be frustrating, but if we're lucky we'll be able to uncover who's behind the dealings and get everything back to normal in the next few weeks... so, uh... yeah... that's pretty much it..."**

Having been surprisingly moved by this, the crowd decided to applaud the Chief's new policies, an appraisal that went on for about fifteen seconds. In this time, Hiccup took both of Astrid's hands gently and said "thanks, Astrid... just... thank you..."

 _"Hm... no problem, babe..."_ Astrid kissed him lightly on the lips, before they turned back to the quieting crowd as Fishlegs put his hand up.

"So, uh... when exactly are these measures starting out, Hiccup?"

 **"Well, obviously it's gonna take a couple days for the new security systems to be built around our dragon nip field, Fishlegs, but the random storage searches will be effective from tonight..."** Hiccup explained. **"I mean, as soon as we take down the dealing ring the measures will be taken down, but until then, we're just gonna have to make the best of it... so... meeting adjourned, I guess..."**

As the Hall began to empty, Astrid stayed behind Hiccup as he talked to Gustav. "So... before we get inter-island-travel on lock-down, Gustav, are you _absolutely sure_ that you don't know who's behind all this?"

"Uh..." Gustav took a split-second to glance behind Hiccup, where Astrid was threateningly punching her right fist against her open left palm, while silently mouthing obscene and visceral insults. He chuckled nervously, before looking back at Hiccup and saying "I'm real sorry, Chief... but I got no idea who it is..."

"Ugh... right, okay..." Hiccup turned back to Astrid, who was back to her usual happy personality as she linked her arm with his and said _"so... you sure about these security measures, huh?"_

"Well, yeah..." Hiccup said. "I mean... there's not much else we can do to catch these guys, is there?"

 _"Hm... no... no, I don't think so, Hiccup..."_

* * *

 ** _"Since Hiccup had already made these plans before even calling the meeting, the first two islands he told about it were the Berserkers and the Bog Burglars. So with everyone in my business caught up on the new spanner in our works, I decided to gather the group together to discuss what to do about it."_**

* * *

It was midday when the five of them were sitting in a circle at the cove where Astrid and Heather talked about Cami's first visit to Berk. Ruffnut had gone with Astrid on Stormfly, since she couldn't fly Barf and Belch without Tuffnut and the last thing they needed was someone with his intellect, or lack thereof, to be witness to this.

 ** _"Ugh! That scrawny little rat!"_** Cami grunted out viscerally as she threw Astrid's axe spiralling into a rock that had a crude, messy painting of Gustav drawn on it. _**"I say we go get that whiny little sellout, shove his helmet's horns up his backside and then cut off his tiny little..."**_

"Cami, just sit down and let's just _try_ to approach this sensibly!" Heather snapped, prompting Cami to scoff as she sat down with the others. Astrid was sitting silently as the others all thought about what to say.

Eret was the first to break the silence, saying "alright, obviously Gustav didn't tell Hiccup _who_ was dealing the dragon nip, and with Astrid helping Hiccup with the speech today he doesn't suspect her either, so for now we're in the clear... we'll just have to be a bit more careful when we're dealing the stuff..."

 _ **"We were being careful!"**_ Cami snapped back. _**"The only one who wasn't being careful was Gustav, and now he's gone into witness protection!"**_

Ruffnut nodded, saying "and how long til Gustav conveniently remembers that it _was_ us...? What do we do then?"

 _"Guys, just relax, okay?"_ Astrid said. _"Eret's right... we're the last five people in the Archipelago that Hiccup'd suspect to be behind the dragon nip trading... so all we have to do is keep our low profile even lower and don't make Hiccup want to suspect us..."_

"Right..." Heather said, before looking at Astrid and saying "what about the extra supervision they're putting on the dragon nip fields? I mean, it's not like we're just gonna walk in there, cut off a clump or two and then walk out like we used to..."

 _"Hiccup still needs to appoint a quote-unquote **"trusted official"** to oversee Berk's supply of dragon nip..."_ Astrid patted Eret's shoulder encouragingly as she added _"and I think we all know who I'm gonna recommend, don't we, Eret?"_

* * *

 ** _"This was almost beginning to feel like a game of Maces and Talons, having to stay a step ahead of Hiccup and his security policies while pretending that I actually supported them. With what a pain in the ass it was becoming to outsmart these measures, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had grown to support them just to stop avoiding them."_**


	9. Astrid's Indecent Exposure

**CHAPTER NINE  
** **Astrid's Indecent Exposure**

* * *

 _ **"The new security measures being imposed wasn't so well-received by many of our usual customers... so... a lot of them pulled out within a week, meaning our supply-and-demand scale took a direct hit and our profits took a pretty big slump... but we were still making money, not as much but still... and unlike a certain weedy little brat named Gustav, the ones that pulled out were more than happy to not rat us out... so we did good with what we'd be given. And as long as it was still a secret, I was happy."**_

* * *

 **Six Months Later...**

Eret was sitting at the front door to the wooden gate that now surrounded Berk's dragon nip field, whistling an inconspicuous tune to himself as he paced back and forth, while Skullcrusher was asleep behind him with the dragon nip in the field soothing his slumber.

"Ah... g'morning, Mrs Larson..." he said as Gustav and his mother brought Fanghook over to him. Mrs Larson nodded, saying _"Fanghook's been feeling a bit under the weather this week, Eret... Gustav can take it from here..."_

"Hm... can he, now?" Eret snarked as he eyed Gustav with a subtle, threatening hint of contempt. Gustav gulped slightly, saying "uh... yeah. I'll just be in and out real fast. Come on, Fanghook..."

Eret nodded, opening the gate and letting Gustav in with his dragon. He stood at the gate watching as Gustav got down on his knees with his back facing Eret and Mrs Larson. He took out his knife, cutting off a few clumps of dragon nip and putting them up to Fanghook's nose. The dragon spluttered a few times at first, but eventually calmed down and relaxed, prompting Gustav to pat his nose affectionately and take him out of the gate.

"Kay, we're done..." he said in a tone that was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible as he shoved his hands into his slightly heavier pockets and went back to the village with his mother and dragon. Eret watched them leave, before a familiar Nadder's cry prompted him to look up with a grin as Stormfly landed next to him with Astrid on her back.

 _"What was Gustav doing here?"_ she asked as she got off, prompting Eret to shrug as he said "not much, besides feeding Fanghook... seems he's scared of the measures, like everyone else, I suppose..."

 _"Uh-huh..."_ Astrid scoffed, crossing her arms as she glared at them walking away. _"I can't help but feel like he's up to something, Eret... dammit, I know he is!"_

"Hm..." Eret couldn't do much other than nod in agreement with Astrid, before she pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment. She turned back to him, saying _"so... you got my sample...?"_

Eret glanced to his left and then to his right, just to make sure for certain they weren't being watched by anyone, before reaching into his fur vest and pulling out a a wrapped package. He passed it to Astrid, prompting her to shove it deep into her the satchel hooked on her saddle compartment. _"You gave Cami, Ruff and Heather theirs, right?"_

"I did, indeed." Eret nodded confidently. "Ruff's making her trip to Berkserker Island tonight. Shouldn't be any hassle, since they don't know about her.. her _storing methods_ , ha ha..."

Astrid was stifling laughter through the hand over her mouth as Eret said this, patting him on the shoulder as she said _"well, ha ha... one day we'll be telling stories of her commitment... truly an inspiration... well, I'll see y'next week, Eret. Keep up the good work..."_

"Will do, soon-to-be Mrs Haddock..." Eret saluted Astrid sarcastically as she and Stormfly walked back to the village.

* * *

 _ **"As you can probably see, having Eret as the sentry for the dragon nip field had been a huge advantage to keeping us away from Hiccup's radar, just like I thought it would."**_

* * *

It was almost sunset when the familiar sound of a Night Fury could be heard from the blood-red sky. Eret looked up and waved at the black dragon, and the village chief on his back, as they flew down to greet him.

"Uh... hey, Eret..." Hiccup dismounted Toothless once they'd landed in front of the gate where Eret and Skullcrusher were sitting. "Anything to report tonight?"

"Not much, chief... this morning, the Larsons brought their Nightmare Fanghook because he was apparently feeling under the weather, but that was about it, really..."

"Nothing suspicious, was there?"

"No, it was all quite straightforward, actually. I was watching the lad from the second he walked in to the second he walked out. He just fed some dragon nip to Fanghook and they were on their way..."

"Huh... well, that's good to hear. I mean, I know Gustav's been trying to keep a low profile since these measures were put in... gods, I... I'd hate for these nip dealers to find out _he_ told on them and they hunted him down or something... but yeah, good to see he's still using it on Fanghook, I guess..."

"Hm... I suppose so..." Eret said, scratching the back of his head as he said "Hiccup, I was just wondering..."

"Yeah...?"

"Well, from what we know so far, the dragon nip trade's declined a lot since we put these new security measures on the islands... how much longer do you think we'll have to keep this up?"

Hiccup scoffed a bit, saying "I'm planning to have the measures in until we snuff out the who the traders are and stop this altogether... I mean, we're getting close, I... I can feel it, y'know?"

"Oh, I'm _sure_ you are..."

"Yeah, I know, but... but it's just gonna take a little while longer, okay, Eret...?" Hiccup was somehow both comforting and confident at the same time, getting back on Toothless and saying **"everything'll okay and back to normal soon! I just know it!"**

Eret had to wait until Toothless had took off and the pair had gone back to the village to burst out laughing at what Hiccup had said, having to lean on Skullcrusher as he pet the dragon's nose affectionately. "Alright, boy... ha ha... what'd you say we call it a night, eh?"

* * *

 _ **"So for the last six months, everything had actually been going surprisingly peachy. Granted, I had to cut my dragon nip consumption to one hit a week, just so I could be a little more alert, but if I have to be honest, the anticipation actually made it better than when I was taking it every night..."**_

* * *

It was nearly midnight when Astrid climbed out of her bedroom window and crept across the empty, sleeping village square to Gobber's blacksmith stall.

Once she knew she was completely alone, having looked through and closed all the windows and doors in the forge so no one outside could see in, Astrid sat herself down on a chair in the middle of Hiccup's workplace. It had grown even more since the first time she'd taken dragon nip there, and the whole place was now crowded with a vast assortment of dragon dentistry equipment and saddle building contraptions.

Having taken her satchel off of Stormfly's saddle, she exhaled heavily, casually pulling out a sheet of paper and a handful of the dragon nip from the bag.

Having had plenty of practice and experience with Heather's technique of consumption, Astrid almost artistically folded the paper in half. She quickly began sprinkling the dragon nip into the fold and then rolled the sheet into a tube, crumpling either end of the paper so that the dragon nip didn't fall out.

She took out a match next, lighting the candle on the table and blowing it a few times to make sure the flame was big and hot enough. Finally, she held one end over the small, dancing flame, letting it singe the end and draw a small trail of garlic-smelling smoke to emanate from the blackened corner. She hadn't noticed the door behind her opening as she held the other end to her opened mouth and prepared to breathe it in.

 **"GOOD GODS! Astrid, what in the name of Thor are you doing?!"**

 _"Valka!"_ Astrid shot up and turned to face her betrothed's mother, scrambling to her feet and shoving the dragon nip into her back pocket.

 ** _"GAH! Ow, ow, ow!"_** she fished it out of her pocket after it had burned through the cloth and singed her backside, now holding the tube out in full view for a shocked, frozen Valka to see. _"Uh... I, I uh... Val, I was j... I did... it... uh, well, it is... ugh, it's just not what it looks like, okay?!"_

"Astrid, you're smoking dragon nip! It's _exactly_ what it looks like!" Valka snapped with a tone mixing both concern and anger, prompting Astrid to go wide-eyed as Valka turned back to the door. _**"Wait, NO!"**_

She quickly grabbed a pair of Gobber's dentristry appliers, grunting out an aggressive **_"HEE-YAH!"_** as she threw it spiralling towards the door, the two blades keeping the door stuck shut before Valka was able to open it. Valka barely had time to react to it as Astrid, being just on the verge of red-faced rage, pinned her up against the wall.

 ** _"You are not telling anybody about this, Valka! Do you hear me?! Hiccup is not gonna find out that I'm behind this dragon nip stuff, and I've been through too much crap with it to let it ruin my life now!"_**

"Astrid, I'm trying to pro... _wait_ , you... you're behind it all?!" Valka's words caused Astrid to realise what she was doing and prompted her to release her future mother-in-law, panting rapidly and heavily as she stumbled backwards and sat down on the chair again. _"Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods..."_ she was shaking her head from side-to-side as she gripped her own hair.

"Astrid..." Valka sat on the chair next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder as she added "Astrid, dear... what have you done...?"

 _"I... I uh... I just... uh..."_ Astrid slowly looked up at Valka, her cheeks blushing red as tears stained down them. Eventually, she'd all but given up on controlling herself as she broke down, shouting _**"I don't know, okay?!"**_

Valka, while she had a more subtle look on her face, was clearly holding back some tears of her own at the state Astrid was in, letting some of them stream down her face as she pulled Astrid close and had the girl wrapped in a comforting, motherly embrace. She stroked the blonde hair softly as Astrid wrapped her arms around Valka's waist while the latter whispered _"come on... just let it out, it's okay, Astrid... ssh... you're alright... you're alright... that's it..."_

After about five minutes of this, she straightened back up and used her right sleeve to wipe her own eyes as she used her left hand to hold Astrid's head up so she was now facing her. "Now, dear... how did all this happen...?"

* * *

 _ **"We sat down and talked... just me and Val... when I stopped crying, I... well, I just let it all out. Told her everything. Everything from the minute Hiccup first showed me the dragon nip right up to when she just saw me..."**_

* * *

 _"...and then you came in and this all happened..."_ Astrid was frantically wringing her hands together as she finished her story. She looked up with Valka, anxiously expecting her to finally lose her temper and storm out. Surprisingly, while she took a moment to exhale in frustration as she rubbed the bridge of her nose, Valka's look and tone was arguably kind and compassionate, letting out a small chuckle as she said "well... ha ha... it appears you've dug yourself rather deep into this, haven't you, Astrid...?"

 _"Ugh..."_ Astrid had her head in her hands once Valka had said this. _"Val, what's gonna happen now? I mean... ugh, man... if Hiccup finds out about this, Thor knows how he's gonna react to it... he... the betrothal's screwed, I'm out on my ass, and even worse, I'm gonna be..."_

"Now, you listen to me, young lady..." Valka had a hand on Astrid's shoulder, prompting Astrid to look back at her. "Hiccup loves you more than anything in the world. And he always has... he won't be angry at you, he'll... well, maybe _at first_ he will, but... but he'll be worried about you... because that's who our boy is..."

Astrid grinned a bit at this, nodding silently before Valka said "he _needs_ to know what you've done, Astrid. I mean... he'll track it to you eventually, so we might as well save everyone the hassle and tell him..."

 _" **No!** Valka, please! Please, you can't breathe a word! Hiccup **cannot** know about it! I... I'm not ready for that yet..."_

"Ugh... fine... fine, alright, darling, I... I won't tell Hiccup... but _you_ should... right... just get some sleep for now, dear..." there was a slight sternness present in Valka's concerned tone as she patted Astrid on the shoulder, gently kissing her forehead before getting up and leaving her future daughter-in-law sitting alone in the forge.

Astrid sighed and groaned at the same time when Valka was gone, as if the vast array of guilt and consequences of the dragon nip, the ones far worse than mere vomiting followed by a long hangover, had come crashing down on top of her all at once.

 _"Ugh... oh, Thor! What have I done?! What am I **gonna** do?!"_ she cried up to the heavens, before looking at her left hand and realising she was still holding the tube of dragon nip. She began panting heavily and furiously, throwing the tube onto the ground and stamping on it with her foot.

She let out all the pent up anger and stress she could muster and released it through her foot as she strapped down on the crumpled tube again and again. _**"Stupid, stupid, stupid dragon nip! UUUUURRRRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!"**_

Having finally depleted her fury through that final, blood-curdling shriek, Astrid took a deep breath and exhaled, allowing her bright red skin to return to it's usual colour. She kicked the crumpled dust of dragon nip under the table and blew out the candle, before rushing out of the forge and climbing back up through her window into bed.

* * *

 ** _"Valka was right. I had to tell Hiccup the truth, just like I told her. There had to be no stone left uncovered here. The olive branch, Cami, the dealings, Gustav. Maybe not what I made Ruff do, though... ha ha... but it was time for me to face up to it... if I wasn't too late already..."_**


	10. Astrid's Public Incident

**CHAPTER TEN  
** **Astrid's Public Incident**

* * *

 _ **"I had barely slept a wink. After the talk with Valka, I wanted to find Hiccup and tell him as soon as possible. This had to be a quick tear, not a slow peel..."**_

* * *

Astrid could feel the weight of the bags under her eyes as she got out of bed, still keeping her window covered to keep the 10:45am sun from burning her retinas. She felt both hungry and sick at the same time, so breakfast was out of the question.

She quickly put on her boots and hood and went downstairs and out the door into the already bustling village.

 ** _"Hiccup?! Hiccup?!"_** she called a few times, stopping then occasional village to ask if they'd seen the chief. No one was of any help to her, until she saw Cami, Heather, Mala and Dagur standing in front of the Great Hall with Eret and the other riders.

 **"Morning, sleepy-head!"** Heather called to Astrid before running down to give her friend a hug. _"Heather... Heather, we need to te..."_

"Y'had a lie in today, huh?" Dagur laughed before Astrid could finish what she was saying, prompting her to chuckle half-heartedly as she said _"yeah... ha ha... long day yesterday... so uh... anybody here seen Hiccup?"_

"Last we saw of him, he was in Gobber's stall..." Mala said, while Cami, Eret and Ruffnut all looked at Astrid. She cleared her throat, before separating from Heather's embrace and adding _"great... I just... I have to talk to him about uh... ahem... something... I'll uh... I'll catch up with you guys later... probably..."_

"No trouble at all, dear honorary sister..." Dagur patted her on the back, before he and the others went into the Great Hall. Astrid sighed as she turned to look at the forge at the bottom of the hill, taking a deep breath before going down to it.

* * *

 ** _"To be honest, it actually made a lot of sense for me to break my secret to Hiccup here, since this was where I made my little advance on him the first day I tried it. It was practically poetry."_**

* * *

 _"Hiccup? Hiccup, are you in here?"_ Astrid called nervously as she peeked into the dark stall, leaving the door slightly ajar as she walked into it. _"Hiccup... ugh... look, babe, we really need to talk... it's um... it's about the dragon nip dealing..."_

"What about it?" a voice behind her suddenly said, nearly causing Astrid to jump out of her skin as she grabbed a knife off of the table and turned around to face the voice.

Heather quickly raised her hands in surrender. "Easy, Astrid... easy, just... just put the knife down, okay...?"

 _"Gods, Heather. Why did you sneak up on me like that?!"_ Astrid snapped.

"What. I saw you coming in here alone and it's all dark, like in a scary story, so... I dunno, maybe you need backup or something..."

 _"Trust me, Heather. I'm the last person in the Archipelago you'd wanna backup right now..."_

Heather had an eyebrow raised with a grin on her face, saying "hm... you're telling him, aren't you?"

Astrid closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling heavily before she said _"yeah... yeah, I am..."_

She then sighed as she reached for the knife again, throwing it for Heather to catch as she said _"so... you wanna silence me, cut my tongue out, or kill me, or whatever, here's your chance..."_

"Well, Astrid... as _tempting_ as that sounds..." Heather snarked as she threw the knife away. "I still think you're in _desperate_ need of backup... if you're gonna tell Hiccup the truth, we'll all be right behind you..."

 _"Hm... thank you, Heather..."_ Astrid gushed warmly as she pulled Heather into a hug, taking a moment before saying _"wait... we...?"_

Heather chuckled, separating from the embrace as she said "oh... right... yeah, I totally forgot about them..."

She was close to laughing as she titled the door open behind her, revealing Cami, Ruffnut and Eret all standing just outside.

 _"Wait, guys, you're... you're not upset about me telling Hiccup...?"_

 _"Course we're not..."_ Cami said. _"Dragon nip's nice, but come on, Astrid, it's not worth all this trouble..."_

"Besides, you're the one who started all this, Astrid. It's only right that you be the one to decide when to put it to rest..." Eret added with a chuckle.

"And my butt most certainly agrees..." Ruffnut snarked as they all laughed. Heather put her hand on Astrid's shoulder, a smile on her face as she said "like I said... we're all right behind you..."

Astrid smiled back, before saying _"thanks, you guys... so... where's Hiccup right now?"_

"Oh, right. We forgot to mention it t'you..." Eret said suddenly. "He's up in the Great Hall..."

"Yeah, he and Valka are talking to my mom about chief stuff..." Cami snarked, prompting a curious Astrid to say _"oh... what sort of chief stuff?"_

 _"He's got a big announcement to make. It's also the reason Mr and Mrs Berserker are here with their second-in-command..."_ Cami said as she pointed to Heather, who added "yeah, the Whispering Trees and Uglithug leaders are gonna be here for it too..."

 _"Wait, you... ugh... gods..."_ Astrid rubbed her temple stressfully as a thought suddenly dawned on her. _"You don't think it's about... y'know...?"_

"The dragon nip? Hm... well, maybe..." Heather wasn't worried as she patted Astrid on the back. "But if it is, it'll be fine. If we find Hiccup and you tell him now, he'll probably be really happy about it..."

 _"Heather, I... I don't know, I just..."_

"Geez, Astrid. I'm the dumbest person here and even I know there's no better time than now!" Ruffnut snapped.

After a quick little moment of silence, Astrid took a deep breath, before saying _"alright... let's go break it to him..."_

* * *

 ** _"I'd been dreading telling the others about this almost as much as I dreaded telling Hiccup, but to have them actually supporting me was a huge relief that I wasn't expecting to have. So with the big announcement about to be made I decided to seize my moment."_**

* * *

Astrid went into the Hall with the others behind her, seeing Valka standing and laughing with Bertha and Dagur.

 ** _"Val, where's Hiccup?!"_** she asked frantically, prompting Valka to excuse herself from the two chiefs as she said "ah, g'morning, dear... how did he take it?"

 _ **"I haven't told him yet! It's why I'm trying to find him, so where is he?!"**_

"Alright, love, just calm down... it'll be fine, Astrid. He's down by the dock welcoming the other chiefs..."

 ** _"Great! Thanks, Val!"_** Astrid quickly turned back and out the doors of the Hall, running at a fast pace down the steps before the last person she wanted to see at this point stood in front of her, a smug grin on his face as he said "hey, _boss_... y'hear about the announcement?"

 ** _"Outta my way, shrimp!"_** she snapped as she shoved Gustav aside. She froze at the bottom of the steps, standing straight as she saw Hiccup heading up the hill with Toothless while talking to the chiefs of the Whispering Trees and Uglithugs.

She brushed her hair out of her face and dusted herself down, nodding silently with a smile as the two chiefs passed her. Once they'd gone into the Hall, she turned her attention to her own village's chief. _**"Hiccup!"**_

"Oh, morning, Astrid..." Hiccup said as he and Toothless walked past her and up the steps to the Great Hall where everyone was gathering. He was clearly nervous since he was about to make a public speech to most of the other tribe leaders, but he seemed calmer and happier than when he first announced the security measures.

As he went up the steps to the Hall, Astrid quickly followed behind him and took his hand as she said _"Hiccup, I have something I **really** need to tell you..."_

"Alright. Just tell me after the announcement, okay?"

 _"Yeah, but this isn't really an after-the-announcement kind of thing to tell you..."_

"Astrid, I can't ta..."

 _"It's basically an announcement all by..."_

 **"Astrid!"** she froze for a moment as Hiccup said this to her, prompting an awkward silence to take hold. It wasn't really a command, or aggressive, but it was slightly harsher than how he usually spoke to her. Within an instant, he'd clearly regretted using this tone with her, sighing as he added "look, Astrid. I... I'm sorry, but I can't talk right now. Alright, they're all in there waiting, Astrid, and I can't screw this up in front of the other chiefs... I'll hear it right after, I _promise_..."

He kissed on the cheek before quickly running into the hall with Toothless following him, Astrid standing at the door still as she groaned loudly in frustration. **_"Ugh! You idiot!"_**

* * *

 ** _"Well... I guess waiting til after the announcement wouldn't have done anyone any harm... right?"_**

* * *

The entire village was frantically talking as they gathered in the Great Hall. Hiccup was standing in the centre of the table with Valka behind him, while Bertha, Cami and the Uglithug chief stood to his left as Dagur, Mala and the Whispering Trees chief stood on his right. Astrid sat between Heather and Eret in the front row of the crowd, breathing slowly yet anxiously as she waited for the speech to start and finish so she could tell Hiccup her secret.

 **"Well... I'd like to thank you all for coming here today..."** Hiccup aimed this at the other chiefs, who all nodded respectfully in response. Valka had a hand on her son's shoulder as he cleared his throat and continued with **"so... I have really good news regarding our security measures over the whole dragon nip fiasco."**

Astrid went wide-eyed at this, her left hand fidgeting nervously out of her control before Heather grabbed her hand to stop it moving. She watched as Valka came out fully from behind the table so that everyone could see her. **"Aye, we have... ahem... last night, I spoke anonymously to the mastermind behind the dragon nip dealings. And I'm pleased to report that we've reached an agreement..."**

Astrid noticed Cami raising an eyebrow at this as she glanced at them in the crowd, before Valka continued with **"as long as we press no charges against them or their companions, the dealings will be stopped for good and the mastermind will reveal _he_... I mean, _them_ selves at this very meeting..."**

Heather and Eret both glanced at Astrid without turning their heads as Astrid gulped nervously. She looked at Valka, who quickly looked back and nodded confidently, as if this was meant to be Astrid's cue to stand up.

 **"Well, there you have it, guys..."** Hiccup sighed in relief. **"So... assuming the so-called mastermind of this whole thing is in the room, I'd like to ask that you step forward now so we can put away these security measures and everything can go back to normal... since we're all _really_ excited to find out who you are..."**

Astrid felt Heather's hand squeezing hers gently, turning to face her as she grinned encouragingly. Astrid smiled weakly in return, before looking back where Hiccup was still waiting to find out who the mastermind was. She closed her eyes and took a deep, slow breath, exhaling quietly as she whispered _"okay... here goes..."_

 _ **"DARLING, NO!"**_ everyone jolted up as they heard Mrs Larson's voice from outside the Hall. Hiccup had already jumped over the table onto Toothless' back as the dragon took off over the crowd to the door while Astrid and the other riders quickly followed him outside. Mrs Larson was standing at the bottom of the steps, looking up with terror at the top of the Hall's towering doors.

 _ **"Gustav, he's up there!"**_ she wailed as Hiccup got off of Toothless and they all looked up at Gustav, who was cackling without a care as he dangled dizzily on the sword placed in the right statue's mouth. _"Hey, you guys all look like ants from down there! AH HA HA HAAA!"_

 **"Alright, Gustav!"** Hiccup called as Astrid and the others gathered behind him and Mrs Larson. **"We're gonna get you down from there. Just don't let go..."**

"What was that?" he said in a theatrical, sarcastic tone. "You want me to let go?"

 _"No-no-no-no-Gustav-don't-do-that!"_

 **"WHOOO!"** Gustav let go of the sword and began plummeting towards the ground. Everyone else screamed, but Cami remained calm as she shoved herself to the front and shouted _**"Toothless! Trust exercise!"**_

Toothless nodded as he quickly leapt up on his hind-legs and lowered his head, just letting Gustav slide down his back and reach the ground unharmed, exactly as he'd done with Cami the day she first visited Berk. Gustav hadn't been hurt, but he was robbed of his breath as his mother worryingly wrapped him into a tight embrace.

When she finally released him, Gustav sat on the ground groaning as Hiccup got down on one knee. He strictly said " **Gustav, what in Thor's name were you doing up there? Do you know what could have...** wait... your eyes, what... what's wrong with them...?"

Astrid also noticed Gustav's face was devoid of it's usual colour and he had thick, heavy bags under his eyes. _"Gods... he's taken dragon nip, Hiccup..."_

" **What?!** Eret, how... how could he even get his hands on it?! You saw him feeding it to Fanghook!" Hiccup looked at an equally-confused Eret, who glared at Gustav as he said "the little bugger must have hidden himself a sample!"

"Ha ha... on the orders of my employer... the dragon nip mastermind..." Gustav laughed out weakly, prompting Astrid to go wide-eyed as she said _**"what?!"**_

 **"What orders, Gustav?!"** Hiccup asked intensely, with Gustav keeping a smug grin as the other chiefs were within earshot. "It was my job to get some dragon nip for a new garden while the mastermind played you like an idiot and made you think she surrendered! Ha ha... it's simple, ain't it?!"

 _What?! No I didn't?!_ Astrid thought to herself, before looking at Gustav and saying ** _"what the Hel are you even talking about?!"_**

"It's all true, chief..." Gustav said, clearly trying to build up tension for a bombshell to drop. _"Just ask your girlfriend..."_

"What?!"

 **"Don't listen to him, Hiccup! He's a liar!"** Ruffnut called in protest, before a worried, slightly wide-eyed Hiccup kept his eye contact with Gustav as he added " _why_ should I ask Astrid, Gustav?!"

 **"Because she _is_ the mastermind, dumbass!"** Gustav chortled out as a loud series of gasps spread like a fire amongst the crowd.

 _"Oh gods..."_ was the only thing Astrid could really get out as everything seemed to freeze around her and she collapsed onto her knees. She couldn't even bother trying to stop tears streaming down her face as she felt everyone looking at her, before Hiccup finally looked away from Gustav at her to snap her out of her trance. His face, one that seemed to feel shocked, confused and betrayed all at once, cut her right down to the core.

" _Astrid_... Astrid, is this true?!"

Everything around her returned to its normal speed, but it wasn't panic she felt anymore. There was a hint of fear, and quite a bit of shame. But most of all, it was sheer _**fury**_.

 _"You snitching... lying... little... **BASTARD!** "_ Astrid was snarling like a beast as she shoved past Hiccup and charged Gustav, who barely had time to scream as she tackled his scrawny body to the ground and began pummelling him wildly with her fists.

 **"Astrid... Astrid, stop this!"** as she beat Gustav senseless, Astrid could hear Valka's voice and the feeling of her future mother-in-law's hands gripping her arm to pull her off of the boy. She was still shrieking and red in the face as Valka was able to pry her back, letting Mrs Larson pick up the bloody mess that her son had been turned into.

When Astrid finally managed to calm down, the majority of the crowd had taken a few steps back, almost forming a circle around the scene. Astrid looked at Valka, and then at Hiccup, who was glaring at her with equal loads of despair, disappointment and disapproval all at once.

* * *

 _ **"Well... busted, I guess..."**_


	11. Astrid's Big Fight

**CHAPTER ELEVEN  
** **Astrid's Big Fight**

* * *

 _"When Heather went back with her parents I gave her all the dragon nip I had as a peace offering..."_ Astrid explained in a bitter yet calm tone, sitting on the couch in the Haddock house while Hiccup paced back and forth tugging angrily at his own hair. _"Since you obviously didn't like the thought of me kicking her head in, I was pretty sure this is what **you'd** have wanted me to do, Hi..."_

 **"Are you seriously blaming _me_ for this?!"**

 _" **No!** Of course I'm not. I just..."_

 **"Ugh, I should have known this was happening! I should have seen the signs!"** he groaned furiously, more visibly angry at himself than at Astrid, though there wasn't any doubt that she was still in big trouble. **"All that stuff that you've been saying to me for the last six months. All that... that _no laughing matter_ crap! Damn, I should have known that was all a _lie!_ "**

 _ **"Just listen to me, Hiccup!"**_ she snapped back as she stood up, prompting him to raise an unamused eyebrow as he faced her. _**"Alright, I got rid of that dragon nip when I gave it to Heather! That was all of it! Gone, for good! Besides, I'd been clean for like six months at that point, anyway!"**_

"Oh, really? You were clean for six months yet a secret stash of dragon nip just _happened_ to be hidden under your bed, huh?"

 _"Ugh! That was for Stormfly! And it was just in case I needed to use it again... which, by the way, I very nearly did that day cause I was sick of you and Heather! But I chose not to, Hiccup, because I knew it wasn't the right thing to do!"_

"You're saying that like not taking it then somehow changed everything..." he snarked back. "You still started taking it again and you still became a dragon nip dealer!"

Astrid was practically fuming with her fists clenched, before she exhaled as she said _**"screw it! You know what, Hiccup, I do blame you for this! Every time I've ever taken dragon nip, it's cause of you! Stormfly, Heather, Cami... you're just as responsible for this as I am!"**_

"The dragon nip I told you about was for Stormfly, Astrid! I never wanted you to eat it or make a fool of yourself!" he snapped. "How does it even appeal to you?! Even without you puking all over the floor, when I found you in the stall that day, you were dancing around like a chicken an-"

 _ **"Oh, great Odin's ghost! We're betrothed now, Hiccup! You don't have to, to... to protect my honour or whatever it is you're trying to do anymore!"**_ she shouted. **_"You don't have to keep pretending that I did a Thor-forsaken chicken dance! Alright, we both know what I really tried to do and we both know what really happened! And frankly, if you'd let me tell you the truth before you made your big announcement today, I'd have..."_**

"Continued lying behind my back without any security measures to stop you! Yeah, I heard Gustav!"

 _ **"Gustav is a lying little bastard, Hiccup!"**_ Astrid snapped. **_"If it comes out of his mouth, it's not true!"_**

"I can see why he worked for _you_ , then..."

 _ **"Do you... really, you.. why you little... UGH!"**_ she grabbed a mug off the table and threw it against the wall, as the sound of it shattering helped to vent out the brief burst of anger she was about to have. _**"You seriously believe Gustav over me now?"**_

"You've been lying to me about this for as long as the dragons were living here, Astrid! Why would I believe you now? Why _should_ I believe you now?!"

 _ **"I kicked Gustav out six months ago, and he's been bitter about it ever since! It's why he came to you in the first place, for Thor's sake!"**_

She got closer to Hiccup, grabbing both of his arms to hold him still and looking him in the eye as she said _"Hiccup, you **have** to trust me this time! Alright, it's over! The dragon nip, the dealing, the lying, all of it! **I'll burn the fields if we have to!** I'll do anything.. and I'm going... and I... **gods...** and... and I promise you, Hiccup, solemnly, adamantly, whatever... **I swear on my life!** This will never... **ever...** happen again... please, Hiccup, it's a promise... please..."_

He held his arms around her, gently enough to not be a grab but just shy of being an embrace. He sighed as he looked at her, thinking for a moment as he said "Astrid, I... ugh... I wish I could trust you, Astrid... I really do... _but I do for..._ "

 _ **"Oh, don't be such a coward!"**_ she snapped suddenly as she shoved him back with both hands, causing him to land in a chair as he looked up worriedly at her.

She was turning red in the face as all her pent up fury came gushing out, tears streaming down her face as she said _ **"ugh! You're such a damn hypocrite! Acting like you can't trust me when you were too much of an idiot to handle this in the first place! And what, you think this dragon nip crap means everything we've done together and all the times I've backed you up and helped you out just don't mean anything anymore?! Hel, I could be high on dragon nip right now and you'd be too ignorant to notice it!"**_

"Well, I d..."

 _ **"You think Stoick would have done this, Hiccup? You think he'd have just thrown everything out the window if I made one mistake?! You think he'd listen to Gustav of all people?!"**_

"No, and I d..."

 _ **"Of course he wouldn't! He'd have nipped this in the bud and that'd be the end of it!"**_

"Astrid..."

 _ **"If you were a real chief, and a real man, you'd be able to suck it up and deal with it but you're not, are you?!** **Why the Hel am I even betrothed to you?!**_

He went wide-eyed with a weak little gasp, but Astrid took about ten seconds to fully realise what she'd said, nearly collapsing as it hit her like a load of bricks. She took a step back, leaning a hand on the couch to steady herself and softly sighing as she said _"Hiccup... Hiccup, I..."_

Hiccup didn't let her finish as he stormed past her and up the stairs to his room, Astrid frantically trying to follow him as she said _"Hiccup... no, Hiccup, please, I didn't mean it, I was just..."_

 ** _BANG!_**

The bedroom door slammed shut in front of her as she got down on her knees, softly knocking on it to no response. _"Hiccup... Hiccup, please..."_ she could tell Hiccup was standing right on the other side of the door. He definitely heard her, but he clearly didn't want to.

 ** _"RRRAAAAAGGGHHH! Fine, then! Be like that!"_** she slammed her fist on the door and turned away from it, storming down the stairs as she tore her betrothal necklace out of her pocket and threw it onto the floor before running out of the house.

She quickly ran across the empty, sleeping village into Gobber's forge. She sat down on what seemed to be the very seat she'd sat on the first day she took the dragon nip and she just sulked, letting tears stream down her face as she tried to process everything that just happened.

 _Why did you say that to him, you idiot!_ she thought to herself. _You know he's insecure! You know he's still getting over Stoick! Why would you remind him of that?!_

She then looked at the small mirror in front of her, a furious scowl crossing her tear-stained, beaming red face as she passionately said _**"you are a disgrace! You're a reckless, arrogant, stupid, selfish disgrace! You threw away your future because of that stupid dragon nip crap!"**_

She used her fur armband to wipe the tears off her cheek, but more were coming down after it as she said _**"you've ruined your life, shamed your family, hurt the man you love... and you know... ugh... you know there's only one way to make up for it!"**_

Astrid took a step back, nodding silently as she ran out of the forge across the village to Stormfly's pen. _"Stormfly... hey, girl..."_ she said gently, prompting the Nadder to wake up and come towards her. Astrid laughed weakly as she embraced the dragon's neck, saying _"come on, Stormfly... let's go for a flight..."_

* * *

 _ **"Looking back, I guess it'd make sense that this cycle that started with a stupid decision ended with another stupid decision..."**_

* * *

About half an hour had passed when Hiccup slowly opened the bedroom door, sniffling a bit as he came down the stairs to the slightly ajar front door. Toothless was in the house now, sitting curled up silently on the floor near the broken remnants of the cup Astrid had smashed.

He sighed as he noticed Astrid's betrothal necklace on the floor, picking it up and sitting down with it in his hands. Toothless grumbled soflty as he sniffed the necklace, Hiccup patting the dragon's head with a painful, weak little grin forced onto his face.

"Ugh... Astrid..." he groaned under his breath, before looking at the door again with a confident yet still faltering look. "I gotta make this right... come on, bud..."

* * *

 _ **"And then, well... we all know where this is going..."**_

* * *

 _"Hoo... here goes..."_ she groaned breathlessly as she stood up and walked closer to the edge, allowing her to see the roaring sea crash and smash against the side of the rocks about fifty feet below her. She stood there contemplating for another minute or so, before she finally tensed her eyes shut.

And then she _jumped_.

Time seemed to slow around her as she plummeted down with her front facing the sky, but Astrid felt perfectly, and surprisingly, _relaxed_. She was going to die. And not in battle, either, but by suicide. She should have been ashamed, _terrified_ even, but she wasn't. She heard what sounded like a voice and a cry in the distance, saying _"Astrid... Astrid..."_

But she paid no attention. Astrid simply closed her eyes and shut out the noises around her, letting the wind blowing up from under her guide her body closer down towards the rock. As she felt herself falling unconscious, she was just able to notice the growing sound of flapping wings and the silhouette of a hand reaching towards her.

This must have been a Valkyrie, having flown down to lead her through Odin's battlefield to Valhalla, though she was surprised that committing suicide still allowed that. With nowhere else to turn, Astrid didn't react in the slightest, letting the familiar-feeling hand take hers.


	12. Astrid's Recovery Process

**CHAPTER TWELVE  
** **Astrid's Recovery Process**

* * *

 _ **"There... all caught up..."**_

* * *

Toothless grumbled softly as he swooped back up and landed on the edge that Astrid had just tried to jump from, Hiccup dismounting him while holding Astrid in a bridal carry. Stormfly got up from her resting spot and darted over to where they were, curiously leaning in and sniffing Astrid's hair as she nudged her nose against her master's face.

"Astrid... Astrid, wake up..." Hiccup said nervously as he lay her back against a rock, gently nudging her a bit as well as her eyes weakly opened. Her eyes took a moment to adjust so she couldn't quite make out who she was face-to-face with.

 _"Wh... where am... uh... **Hiccup?!** "_ she instantly shot up and began scrambling back, nearly falling over the rock behind her as she tried to move away. He grabbed both her hands, frantically saying "wait! Astrid, just calm down, okay? It's alright..."

 _ **"Ugh! No it isn't! Oh, great Odin's ghost!"**_ she shot up and shoved him a bit before she turned and stormed off. _**"I can't believe you saved me! Can't you tell when someone wants to be left alone!"**_

"I can tell when someone's about to make a huge mistake!"

 _ **"It's not a mistake if you're making up for an actual one!"**_ she said, a hint of anger in her mostly tearful words.

"And since when did two wrongs ever make a right? Astrid..."

 _ **"Look, I don't know, okay? I just... ugh!"**_ she snorted messily and wiped her nose and eyes with her forearm as she continued trying to walk away from him. _"I'm a problem for the entire archipelago, Hiccup, and it'd be better off for everybody if I just..."_

"You _have_ a problem, Astrid!" Hiccup finally managed to grab her arm to yank her back. She stared at him, right in the eye, her reddened face still managing to give him the piercing look he had all but gotten used to from her.

"Just... look, just hear me out, okay?" they stood silently like this for about five seconds, before Astrid sighed and slowly sat on the rock, with Hiccup sitting down in front of her as he opened the satchel he was wearing.

"Astrid... I once told you that I couldn't imagine a world without you in it..." he pulled the betrothal necklace out of the satchel and held it out to her. "And I still can't..."

She managed to let out a small, weak grin as he opened her hand and gently put the necklace into it. "Even with all this... the dragon nip, the dealing, the lying, everything..."

Now it was his turn to look her in the eyes as he took both her hands. " _I love you_ , Astrid Hofferson. And I always will..."

 _"Hm... for better or worse...?"_ she said quietly, prompting him to smile as he added "with everything that I have..."

Astrid sniffled a bit with a smile, before tightening her grip on the necklace as she looked to the ground. _"I... I um... I didn't mean it..."_

"Didn't mean what?" he sent gently as he put his hand on her shoulder.

 _"I didn't mean any of those... any of those horrible things I said to you last night, I... I was just angry, and embarrassed, and I... and I... ugh... I don't know, I just... I was just being stupid, and I didn't mean any of it..."_

It was hard for her to talk when she was crying so much, but she managed to look him in the eye as she said _"you are going to be a great chief, Hiccup... and you already are. And I... and I know your dad would be so... he'd just be so proud of the man you are... just as proud than me, probably even prouder, I'm... I... oh, Hiccup, I'm just so sorry!"_

She then threw her arms around him as she embraced him tightly, burying her head into his chest-plate as she continued sobbing out of control. He was a little surprised for a moment, but soon returned the hug.

 _"I know I don't deserve you..."_ she looked up at him, having calmed down just enough to talk. _"But I **am** sorry, Hiccup... for everything... everything I've done, everything I've said... and I don't wanna beg for it, but can... can you... ugh... could you ever forgive me for this?"_

"Oh, Astrid..." Hiccup sat her back down on the rock gently, wiping her messy hair out of her eyes and wiping his thumb across a tear on her cheek. "Of course I can..."

Astrid felt a warm feeling in her stomach and heart, one that only Hiccup could ever really give her, but then he took a moment of silence before he sighed and said "well... it's just... ugh... it'll take a while, Astrid... y'know, to _properly_ forget about it all, I... I um... yeah... it's just gonna take some time..."

 _"Yeah... yeah, I know..."_ Astrid sighed a bit as she looked to the ground again, before Hiccup took the betrothal necklace out of her hand and slid it over her head so it was hanging around her neck. He smiled as he took her hands again, looked her in the eye and said "but we _have_ time... that's what's important, right?"

He gently put his hand around the back of her head and brought her closer, kissing her lips tenderly in an almost comforting manner. As he pulled away, he was taken off guard when a much faster and more excited Astrid suddenly grabbed both of his cheeks and dragged him towards her into a deeper, more passionate kiss. He ended up on his back with Astrid on top of him, just keeping her lips planted on his for a good minute before separating to breathe.

As they both got back up off the ground, Hiccup held Astrid's hand affectionately, saying "so... you're definitely _not_ feeling suicidal anymore, right?"

 _"Hm... no..."_ she said with a smile as she patted Stormfly's nose. _"If anything... I just feel like going home..."_

"Yeah... couldn't agree more... **ow!** " Hiccup grunted as she punched him on the shoulder playfully, before she pecked him on the cheek and gently said _"thank you, Hiccup... for everything..."_

"Sure, Astrid... anything for you, milady..."

* * *

 _ **"So... I think you'll be happy to know that everything's just about back to normal. Well, that is as close as we Berkian folks can actually get to normal... over the next couple days, we got letters from Dagur, Bertha and the other tribes saying that the problem with the dragon nip was now pretty much non-existent with me not dealing it anymore. And everyone was relieved that is was finally over, with one exception..."**_

* * *

 **One Week Later...**

It was late morning when Astrid walked into the village, sitting in front of the blacksmith stall next to a sleeping Toothless. Gustav, who still had cuts and bruises on his face from the beating she had given him, was teaching the newest riders all how to have their dragons bring things to them on order, and everyone except this one girl seemed to be doing well. She had blonde hair in two braids, wore a helmet too big and couldn't have been older than twelve.

 _"No... the spear, Killer... the spear!"_ the girl said in a frustrated tone, getting more and more stressed out as her purple and yellow, adolescent Nadder kept bringing over the same old stuffed lamb toy from the girl's bedroom windowsill and dumping it on the ground in front of her. _"I don't want you to keep bringing Lamby over here!"_

Astrid smirked as the girl picked up the stuffed toy and put it in front of her door, before returning to her previous spot and pointing to where she had positioned her spear a hundred yards away in the opposite direction, perfectly visible for Killer to see. _"I want you to bring me my spear... please..."_

Killer took off again, leaving the girl to watch the other riders succeeding with ease. Astrid chuckled a bit as the girl heard the sound of Killer landing right behind her, forcing a smile back onto her face as she turned around to see what her dragon had brought for her.

 _"Ugh... NO!"_ she finally snapped, yelling out in fury as she threw aside the stuffed toy that her nadder had brought to her for the dozenth time. _"That is not what I wanted you to do! Why are you so bad at taking orders, you stupid dragon!"_

 ** _"Ooh! Watch out!"_** Astrid quickly ran to intervene as the dragon snapped at the girl, putting her hand out to keep him from attacking her. Gustav noticed the commotion, saying "oh, for Gods' sake, Asle! Not again!"

 _"I'm sorry, he's just... he's got a temper!"_ Asle stuttered out in a panicked tone. _"Gustav, I... I need more of that dragon nip you sold me last week..."_

"Hm..." Gustav pretended to think as he took out some dragon nip, which he was free to get now without the security measures. Astrid glared at him as he said "well, my price just went up yesterday, Asle... but, if money matters more than your dragon, then, well..."

 _"Nothing matters more than Killer, you know that!"_ Asle sighed. _"I'll pay you. You know I have money..."_

"Oh, I do..." Gustav said smugly. "I do indeed, ha ha..."

Astrid was fuming at him. _The audacity he had, stealing this girl out of pocket under the guise of helping her._ She thought about beating him up again, before a new idea came into her head.

 _"Why waste that money?"_ she interrupted their conversation, both of them looking as her as she calmly reached her hand under Killer's neck. Scratching that spot gently caused the previously aggressive dragon to collapse with a surprising amount of force onto the ground, completely relaxed as Astrid patted his head and said _"there... good boy..."_

Asle was ecstatically wide-eyed as she hugged Astrid's waist and said _**"wow! How did you do that, Miss Hofferson?!"**_

 _"Learned it from the chief, AKA the master of dragon training himself..."_ Astrid smiled at the girl, before looking at Gustav and saying _"and as for you..."_

"Uh..."

 _"You're gonna give this girl back every penny you took from her. Because I got news for you, Gustav..."_ Astrid swiped the dragon nip out of his hand. She looked at it for a few moments, smirking as she began tearing it apart right in front of the worried-yet-furious boy's face. _"This dragon nip craze is just plain **over!** "_

* * *

 _ **"And after all I've been through, I can safely say that no truer words have ever come out of my mouth."**_

* * *

 **THE END**


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